| CD REVIEW Nato |
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Band : Nato As you can see above, this is yet another re-issue from the Rising Records roster, and I'm afraid that fate decided it to also to become a post-mortem hailing of an indeed véry nice British Metalcore act. The first result of the recording deal came in the Spring of 2007 with the single Kill 'Em Dead Cowboy, followed later in the year by their debut album Kill The Fox To Foil The Plan. Leading up to the "big" event, the boys just kept on gigging (now with new man Mike Henderson supplanting Josh), playing the support slot on the Penknifelovelife tour in July and co-headlining at 2007's Rip Curl Boardmasters event in Newquay (UK's biggest surf and skate festival). A first video for the album was recorded in early April, a huge event in the live of the youngsters (at the time of signing with Rising four of the guys were still under 20), as it took no less than 7 hours to record! The album was really very successful, gaining the band an award for "Best Metal Act" at 2007's Cornish Music Awards, and a confirmation to play at the event in May 2008 as well. In early 2008 the guys started reheasing several hours a day to write new material (3 songs were even demoed) for a new album (with new bassist William), and from mid March to April 19 they were on a headliner tour of the UK for a total of 27 gigs. Prior to heading out on a new bout of live performances around the UK starting July 1st, the boys (now with yet another new bassist by the name of Sam) did the support of Coheed And Cambria's gig at the Nato hometown on June 26. In between they were supposed to get back into the rehearsal space to write new songs, but their hearts wasn't really in it. Somehow the guys were perhaps setting their goals a little too high. The label was giving 'em the time to come up with the material to make the sophomore album the best they'd ever written (let's not forget that the first songs the boys made were put together rather quickly, as a means to get out there and play), and somehow the guys were being overly critical, throwing away anything that wasn't good enough, or even just good! In other words, they weren't getting anywhere fast in the writing department, and didn't feel like starting that tedious process again. The Summer tour had been struck with disaster from day one, the new bassist feeling miserable from the beginning...and it was clear to everyone that he was gonna quit the band. Which he did halfway through the tour...and the band still a full month's gigging to do. Luckily Josh from This City Burns covered, learning the whole set in only 3 days. But then what was to be a two-month tour of the UK eventually got cut short by almost a month, when Norman dislocated his shoulder and broke his collar bone during a day off's game of football...causing him (and the band) to having to returns home and take time off, cancelling most of the tour except the two dates at the end. A couple of days after Jay's accident, Ross was over at Ben's house, when Ben tells him he would not be doing the second album with the band. Which came as somewhat of a shock to Ross, because they were the ones who'd started the band when they were 16. Strangely enough, at the point when Sam left, Jay and Ross had been talking and said something like, "If Ben ever left...that would be it!"...so perhaps the two had already had a feeling of premonition. The guys still did the two shows at the end of August, and announced the end of the band on their MySpace page on October 6. Since then, the guys have moved on. Ben's managed to get into university to study broadcasting. Jay decided to join the Royal Marines and should start an 8-month training session come next Jnuary (if everything comes right with his shoulder, that is). Mike wants to carry on with music, nd has already been helping out several bands around Cornwall. Ross was on a tour with Yasmin during September (though I'm not sure in which capacity) and has joined Aaron Sidwell (commonly known as "Steven Beale" from BBC television series Eastenders). Meanwhile, it's been decided that Nato will play their last show on December 20 at Falmouth's Princess Pavillion venue. Oh...you wonder about the album, right? Well, it's basically a very well-written Metalcore album of the new millenium, meaning what you get musically is a rather melodic Metal with intertwining guitars, whereas in the vocal department the lead singer is frequently backed by nice clean vocals. That same lead singer is really quite versatile, because although he sings with a Blackened scream most of the time, he doés deflect his voice to do some grunting and clean singing in between as well! In essence, the album would've done quite well on an international level had it gotten the attention of some more international labels for distribution. Wanna check it out? Sure, just surf on over to myspace.com/bandnato, where the guys posted 3 songs off the album (two of which also available in video format at top of page). Additionally, Ross has also put two of the new songs on the page (and they should become freely downloadable any day now). Although the material is indeed of high quality, it may perhaps also be considered somewhat "average" in standard in its genre. But that is a totally personal point of view. 86/100 Tony. |
