Band:	Nolentia
Album:	Sell Your Soul To Grind'n Roll!
Style:	Grindcore
Release date:	May 2008

01. Blindness Substituted
02. Kanske
03. Godless
04. Goethe
05. Nihil
06. Destruct

On one of these many bleak and dreary December days, one's pondering mind is easily distracted reminiscing downy memories of those brighter days that once were but now are lost forevermore. And one of those twinkling sunny memories of the past year that is outshining the rest by far is of course the thought of Hellfest Open Air, Metal Storm's absolute favorite summer festival in case you haven't noticed yet. I remember sitting in the grass in the French sun during this year's edition enjoying myself with a bunch of other Metal Storm related people, when all of a sudden this demo got pushed into my hands. Since I always had a great liking for quality (by this I don't mean the quality of the CD itself, but more the quality musically speaking) grindcore-like affairs, I decided to share the merrymaking, so behold my unsolicited opinion.

Frankly, Nolentia are one of the most well-disposed grindcore bands I know. I am aware this is a weird statement to begin with, but it's important to note down that for a grind-death band Nolentia has actually an unexpectedly chummy image. Sure their music is still pretty extreme by definition, but that's not really what I'm talking about now. For example the lyrics are nowhere near the average filthy, carnal or ferocious themes of certain other bands in the genre, more on the contrary, these lyrics are actually pretty intelligent. And also the cover art looks almost harmlessly sweet to me. A second thing that positively amazed me was the contrast between the juvenility of this band and the maturity of their sound. Really, these guys sure know a thing or two about grindcore, and they sure can make a lot of noise being only a three-member band. Finally I also fully appreciated the way the band recorded this whole demo: live in the studio. This gives their first-ever demo a whole vibrant feeling, which helps the already energetic performance of the band a lot. However this automatically brings us to a big flaw of this release: the slightly subpar production. The biggest letdown however is the demo's running time, clocking in just under the quarter of an hour, which is not a lot. Nolentia really leave me behind with a hefty hunger for more of the same dish.

Now, on to the music then, shall we. Let me put it this way, if grindcore and grindcore varieties would be the only existing music genre on this godforsaken planet, Nolentia would definitely be a band broadcasted on radio and television. Don't get me wrong though, Nolentia still play badass extreme music, but because of their sometimes brutal death metal-ish approach they are somewhat more accessible than most other of their rotten-to-the-core grindcore colleagues. Indeed, instead of opting for an explicit brutal approach like most others, Nolentia have instead some filthy yet crusty tunes in store for you. But don't worry; this is still pretty stomach-upsetting blasting material. Like I said before, Nolentia know how to play their grindcore cards right: there is a lot of notice for tempo, force, rhythm and aggression, and also the intelligence of the lyrical themes is remarkably pressed in their music. Yes, for sure this stays heavy material with a few brusque cadenced mid-tempo twists (hence the name of the record I surmise).

This leaves us to the final key question: would I sell my soul to grind'n roll? If these guys keep getting better, the answer would be: hell yeah, where do I sign? In other words: highly suggested for the dyed-in-the-wool fans of the genre (to see what else is there on the menu) and people looking for "a grindcore band to get started with".