The case of Nug intrigued me already at the moment when their promo arrived in my mailbox. Reading that they are signed to Willowtip records but they do not play the usual grind core or brutal US death metal that the bands who belong to the company's roaster play, made me "prioritise" their album for listening and reviewing.
Nug come from Ukraine and Alter Ego is (probably) their debut album (there was no other mentioning in the press release and their bandcamp page contains only one more EP release). The core of their music is post metal which I have personally found very exciting ! Nug combine the progressiveness and complexity of bands such as Meshuggah with the melody, darkness and melancholy of Deftones and Isis (and I am using the names of these bands only as a reference here) without hesitating to add some hints of ambient and industrial in their sound. What makes this mixture successful, is that it is well balanced thus making Alter Ego one of the best albums of the post metal subgenre for this year.
