NYMF have entered the doom / stoner rock arena. Formed in 2007 by two members, Niklas Sjöberg (vocals) and Martin Fairbanks (guitar) of another like minded stoner band The Graviators, NYMF's (I have no idea what their name stands for) debut release for Transubstans Records contains nine tracks of pummeling and distorted, guitar driven jams.
Sounding like they were shot out of a time cannon from 1975 it doesn't take a genius to figure out that these guys probably spent a good deal of their teenage years copping from the Sabbath bible of guitar riffs. Nothing wrong with that because the twin guitar assault of Fairbanks and Kristofer Stjernquist is absolutely massive, and certainly packs a hell of a wallop as the duo peels off an impressive arsenal of chugging riffs and wah-wah drenched solos. Vocalist Niklas Sjöberg also does a solid job by effectively alternating between clean vocals and a guttural delivery. Now perhaps it's because I happen to be a big fan of the genre, but the problem with this album is twofold in that the average stoner / doom metal fan has probably not only heard these riffs before, but also there just isn't enough variety to be found within the riffs or the songs themselves, save for a couple of acoustic sections on "Step Inside" and "Forsaken". You really don't need to have the track list in front of you as you listen to this disc and that's because unfortunately the majority of these songs all sound too much alike.
NYMF seem to be credible enough musicians, but if anything their debut disc shows there is definitely room for improvement. They need to go back to the drawing board and come up with some absolutely killer riffs, and wrap those around more memorable sounding melodies and hooks, so they can at least try to stand out from the pack a little bit more. Certainly not a bad debut by any means, but nowhere near a classic either.
Track Listing
1) The Grave
2) Dark Autumn's Fire
3) Regardless
4) NYMF
5) Step Inside
6) Forsaken
7) Man's End
8) Evil Itself
9) Bleeding Heart
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