By Georgia Smith

Artwork for We Annihilate by My Favourite NemesisFinnish five-piece My Favourite Nemesis return with their short, sharp new EP ‘We Annihilate’, a five-track explosion of metallic experimentation and vocal showcasing atop the dense and varied musical concepts that have informed their existing success. Following their recent signing to American label Seek And Strike after their steady gaining of reputation in the modern Finnish metal scene and millions of streams worldwide, My Favourite Nemesis masterfully balance every element of their technically composed and emotionally driven music on this dual-vocal new offering.

The titular opening track ‘We Annihilate’ is immediately imbibed with the assurance and triumph of the band’s sound, clean and tight even in its harshest elements. The dual vocals – the harsh masculine tones of Janne Piela and the sweeping, almost power-metal style feminine vocals of Sanna Solanterä – elevate the sound from the very beginning; Solanterä’s siren-style echoing of the harsh impassioned rage shredding the edges of Piela’s harsh vocal performance.

The sound is immediately striking – the music becomes a dual entity existing from both sides of darkness and light, harshness and softness. Solanterä’s vocals elevate this track away from simply metal, encompassing something with a greater dimensionality, whilst the hammering of the drums and thudding of guitars ensure that the core of the music’s clean brutality is never lost for long. Heavily layered and yet never dense, this opening track is an immediate triumph and promise of the options that My Favourite Nemesis have opened for themselves by approaching their music from every angle.

The following track ‘A Paradox You Seek’ opens heavier than its predecessor; the vocals so heavy they seem to churn around the thundering of the guitars and unchained ferocity of its drums. Piela’s vocals are pleading, almost tormented, whilst Solantera’s echo just out of frame; ghostly, haunting, and intangible.

The idea that My Favourite Nemesis are exploring different core metallic concepts at the same time from different angles is apparent on this track as well- the lightness lent by the female vocals elevate the undeniable core of pain that the musical constructions and guttural vocals of Piela evoke and twist it into something more accessible, more complete and human. The resulting fullness of the sound and inspiring concepts is made only more striking from the freeness that its guitars run with; rising, falling, bending and thudding around each other as living beings- as the vocals do. The track’s quieter sections of forefronted feminine vocals and full-chorded guitar are almost haunting, before re-entering into the density of the preceding metal with quaking intensity; the track almost literally vibrating under the power of the transition.

‘Corporeal Husk’ makes use more notably of masculine vocals, both the grinding gutturals of earlier and the higher, tormented screams that work so well against Solanterä’s offerings. The track makes use, therefore, of three different types of metallic vocals, and as a result sounds almost choral and collective- the heavy masculine sounding suffering made even more striking by the ghostly highlights of the feminine. The track soars into its chorus, replacing the male vocals with the now almost operatic, theatrical feminine ones holding long notes in an almost power-metal style and elevated to fresh heights by the sweeping guitar phrases and the hollow, quietened screams in the background.

The track possesses a strange kind of dichotomy, and yet undeniable harmony- as though simply searching for the same things has brought these two very different styles and explorations into something undeniably connected. The layering of sounds and tones on this track is masterful, and again means that even with the thunderous nature of My Favourite Nemesis’ core musical ideals, having soft and forefronted lilting vocals does not distract from it, but rather only make it more powerful.

The following track ‘Chimera’ is similar; tangible rage in the opening allows the harshest vocals so far to roar free, whilst Solanterä’s haunting lilt creates an eerie, ghostly undertone and constructs a fresh dimension of experience. Both vocalists perform at the same time on ‘Chimera’, and the result is striking in its unlikely harmony. The inclusion of a short-lived but technical and enjoyable guitar solo demonstrates the technical and musical inclinations and powers of My Favourite Nemesis, whilst the bass and drums marry to the vocal journey and create a thorough and undeniable raw power in every single moment of the track.

The final track, ‘Blind’ begins with an almost ballad-style opening of forefronted female vocals, only to have them split into the harsh masculine ones and back again. This back-and-forth creates not only the harmony that has ruled through this EP, but a lyrical and conceptual journey of the emotions and ideas that have informed its creation. The two vocals, and indeed the two different concepts they may represent, have grown closer together over the course of the EP, from never touching, to overlapping, and now by the end seeming to erupt out of each other.

This blending, along with the ferociously impassioned background harshness and ever-thunderous drums means that by the end of ‘We Annihilate’, My Favourite Nemesis have carved a niche for this EP somewhere between the operatic theatrics of something almost power-metal, and the grinding heaviness of the harshly vocalled and untethered emotive power of the metal that they have become known for.

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