LA MER - FEAR NOTHING

La Mer is a one-man project from Glasgow, Scotland and he makes his own take on atmospheric black metal. It is the first EP that La Mer has released however he also released 2 full length's in 2020 called 'Kingdom Of Hell' and 'Silence'. For now, I put my focus on 'Fear Nothing'.

First off, thanks to Jeremi from 'La Mer' and Roadtrip God Inc for contacting me. Really cool of you. But now we dive into 'Fear Nothing'. Often epic black ,etal and atmospheric black metal are confused and mixed up by each other. This could be one of those cases. However, La Mer has stated that this should be atmospheric black metal. The difference for me is quite clear. There are a lot of bands that use soundscapes of wind/water/tree sounds etc and that's what I call epic black metal. Atmospheric black ,etal is exactly what La Mer is. Yes, there are some elements that may apply to the epic black metal but 90% of the time, La Mer is more atmospheric black metal.

That is already clear during the first track 'Kingdom Come'. The melodic tremolo riffing is just perfect. The melodies flow into each other like it is natural and for some weird reason, they are quite headbang-able. The chorus is one of those chorussus that will stick in the back of your mind for a while. The way Jeremi says: 'Kingdom Come' is really striking and powerful. Yes, during the second song 'Persistence' there are the inevitable synths that really make its appearance loud and clear.

I don't know that many bands that do this kind of 'clear' atmospheric black metal but it's really intriguing that you can make atmospheric black metal without going overboard with too many synths and soundscapes. However, the soundscapes and synths that La Mer does use, do feel natural and totally not forced like most of those epic black metal releases do. 'Hymn Of The Apocalypse' is a journey of its own. There are some really odd tempo changes and riffs going around. Even though that doesn't fit in the regular picture of atmospheric black metal, Jeremi really hammers it down and lets people know of his talent. It almost sounds like if (yes I know it sounds stupid of what I'm going to say) Tool is making atmospheric black metal during this track 'Hymn Of The Apocalypse'. So that is why 'Hymn Of The Apocalypse' is actually one of my favourite tracks of 'Fear Nothing'.

To round it up, 'Fear Nothing' is such a fun atmospheric black metal EP and because of that, you are willing to spend more of your precious lockdown time towards listening to music by La Mer. It is great to be able to discover new bands in an already exploited genre and be impressed by what he/she/them do. It is a great release and Jeremi (La Mer) should be very proud of what he has accomplished.