Protafield the industrial-rock brainchild of Jayce Lewis, a man who rubs shoulders with the likes of Burton C. Bell (Fear Factory), Roger Taylor (Queen), who makes an appearance on ‘Wrath’, and David Prowse (better known as Darth Fuckin’ Vader). It seems that pulling together such a range of differences is something that carries through to his work with Protafield, who’s sound is a melting pot of influences and ideas.
Opener ‘God-Forced‘ builds up with ascending electro noise, like a machine slowly powering itself on, with stabs of jarring synths and unusual rhythmic structure making for slightly messy, uncomfortable listening until the vocals are introduced and things settle down somewhat. ‘ = Pure’ is where the album really seems to click, offering a more spacious, less dense vibe. The slightly sinister edge lends overtones of Nine Inch Nails/Marylin Manson, which appear again in the less well constructed and less enjoyable ‘Sinner’.
The one-two punch of ‘Acrylic’ and ‘Make Believe’ is the album’s highlight. The former kicks in with a very 80’s, sci-fi B-movie vibe, full of slowly swelling layers, soundscaping and theramin touches. This instrumental interlude bleeds into ‘Make Believe’, which features some epic piano chords, an easy tempo and some dramatic shifts between tribal drumming and doomy riffing. It’s all very Killing Joke in places, which is never a bad thing.
What’s on offer here is all very varied, from title track ‘Nemesis’ and it’s almost prog-like riffing, ‘Wrath’s stompy, deep running grooves and ‘Mass Effect‘s surprisingly standard, almost template-rock departing from sounding remotely like anything else on the record. Although this variation keeps things interesting, it also prevents any real sense of flow or true direction from Protafield. The strength of tracks like ‘Make Believe’ and ‘Wrath’ shows up the slightly shakier offerings like ‘Sinner’ and ‘Redesign’. Perhaps a slightly trimmed offering would have been a more direct statement than the 12 tracks ‘Nemesis’ consists of.
This is an engaging and often enjoyable record, and features a band who, whilst nodding to genre greats like Rammstein and Killing Joke, still have confidence in their own take on industrial. Despite a few weaknesses this is a very promising prota-type.
