Album Review: Acrolysis & Reaver – The Nobody Crowd [Split E.P.]

Album Review: Acrolysis & Reaver - The Nobody Crowd [Split E.P.]
Reviewed by Paul Hutchings

A collaborative EP from two Australian bands, Acrolysis and Reaver, this four track release features themes exploring corruption, temptation, cruelty and unity. The two Sydney bands currently share a member in Konstantine Ana who plays bass for Reaver whilst singing and taking guitar duties for Acrolysis. It’s Acrolysis that kick things off with the opening song ‘A Message to You’, described as a ‘sonic assault on the senses’ and encapsulating the anger felt towards political and social institutions. Whilst the band are certainly tight, and the song powers along, there’s little here to really stand out above the crowd here with the riff so close to Motörhead or Phil Campbell and the Bastard Sons that you should probably pay them the rights.

‘Visions’ is next, one of two songs that both bands collaborated on. It’s okay, contains a decent enough thrash style chug but the solo and ending are basic, crude and limited. The highlight being the driving bass that vibrates with malevolent energy. Vocally, the gravel tones of Zac Marshall work well but the choruses leave me cold.

‘Broken Smoker’ follows and again I’m struggling to find anything exciting about the track. It stomps along at pace, chunky riffs giving the song heft, but the singing isn’t particularly exciting, and the overall tempo of the song slows and drags. It’s competently played but fails to ignite the heat until halfway when a blistering solo fires the engines. Elements of Sabbath and Metallica kick in, but the duel vocals struggle to make any impact.

This leaves the title track, and another collaboration (as far as I can tell – the press release which accompanied this was challenging to decipher to say the least). A heads down thrasher, Ana’s singing is reasonable, his switches between cleans and screams just about working. The song settles into a solid paced track, and it’s possibly the best of the bunch. Overall, not a huge amount to get too excited about here but if you like your metal played in a solid if unspectacular manner, this EP will be fine to while away 20 minutes