Album Review: Nil Desperandum – Dark Tides (Self Released)

Based out of Nottingham in the UK, Nil Desperandum are a hard rock band that comprise of Fee on guitar, Keifer on drums, Melissa on vocals and Phil on bass. They released their debut album, Dark Tides in September last year.

Nil Desperandum know how to gain my interest and they do that with a piano. I love hearing piano-melody in my rock and metal albums as long as it fits and is done well. This is exactly what we get with the opener/intro, a track that shares the same title as the band.

Just short of two minutes, it’s a sad piece that then flows well into Walk this World Alone. Here we see the band open up with some groovy sounding riffs and catchy female vocals. The foot gets tapping, the neck muscles begin to work and the familiar feeling of hearing good music creeps through the body.

It’s followed by Slipping Away, a even stronger track as the vocals absolutely shine here. The rhythm of the guitars are also really infectious and a flurry of pace and intensity near the end hammers home what a good track it is.

We then get a short and sombre instrumental break with Absence before The Void opens up. What a belter it is too as the guitars and drums fire off like a machine gun and the vocals have just a little more bite to them.

The change in tempo at the midway point does make it feel as though one song has ended and another begun but it picks up nicely by the end.

Finally Dark Tides is wrapped up with a lengthy one in the form of Vertigo. Kept mellow, soft and tinged with sadness at first but quickly picks up. It transforms into one of the bounciest and smile-inducing tracks on the album.

With this album, Nil Desperandum have certainly shone a light on themselves and there is no excuses for not paying them a little more attention especially when they’re releasing albums as good as this.

Nil Desperandum – Dark Tides Full Track Listing:

1. Nil Desperandum
2. Walk this World Alone
3. Slipping Away
4. Absence
5. The Void
6. Vertigo

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You can pick up the album via Big Cartel and digitally via Bandcamp, iTunes and Spotify. Find out more about Nil Desperandum via Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.