Album review: 25 YARD SCREAMER – Nemesis

White Knight Records [Release date 07.10.22]

Welsh trio 25 Yard Screamer, now it seems a duo, captured our attention in 2007 with their magnum opus ‘Cassandra”. That year they appeared on our Rising Stars stage at Cambridge Rock. Since that time we’ve quietly followed their progress through four more albums.

Inspired by a collective love of Rush, they’ve never quite replicated the heights of that 2007 opus but followed a varied stylistic path that is often very heavy and very metal. The band are now signed to the Rob Reed (Magenta) label and maybe Rob has instilled some levity.

Musically, as ever, the real delight are Nick James vocals and – a plus point – there are some shorter tracks – ‘Incidence’ , ‘Gravity’ – which may even garner airplay! Wow! This album is far more accessible than more recent offerings. More people, certainly, need to hear this.

The mostly instrumental ‘Breathe’ is a standout with a reflective guitar melody over a persistent and attractive acoustic motif. Both this, and ‘The Vibrations Of Speech’ also feature whispered vocals and, overall, the use of a wide palette of sounds always keeps things interesting. At times, especially opening track ‘Adrift’, I was reminded of the excellent Burntfield release which I raved about in 2021.

In short, ‘Nemesis’ is atmospheric prog and is closer to ‘Cassandra’. For that reason it places the band on a much more comfortable trajectory, one which was convincing in 2007 and – 15 years later – still resonates. With age, and perseverance perhaps, comes wisdom. ****

Review by David Randall

Search 25 Yard Screamer @GRTR!

Archive reviews
Approaching From An Oblique Angle (2005)
Cassandra (2007)
Until All Are One (2011)

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