Essentially a reworking of material from their past demo with a few bonus remixes, "nightmerica." finds Abraid already progressing in a much more favorable direction from that of their prior work. With the intensity bumped up a notch and the song structures noticeably more developed, the group sound a lot more individual this time out, with only an occasional nod to perhaps an organic Spineshank or older Blindside rearing its head.

With an aggressive vocal performance that nearly convulses with each word spoken, depraved and emphatic melody goes head to head with enraged screams and rants as the band storm through energetically charged modern metal based assaults that are guided by grating downtuned riffage, complete with an occasional Korn reminiscent screech and squeal. Not surprisingly, the basslines are equally as fierce and in your face, punching out thick jagged grooves, while hard hit percussion brings up the rear, allowing the band to sustain the momentum of a runaway steamroller whenever they deem it fit.

Some surprisingly sharp breakdowns are introduced within the songs and with a sound that touches upon both heavy and melodic with a feverish intensity, the group are effortlessly able to detonate on command. The softer verbal harmonies are endearing and are hard not to be attracted to, while the more agitated parts are violent in an almost maniacal sense and work closely with the punishing walls of spiked guitar to make the music all the more concentrated. The addition of the industrial/electronic remixes of "Bright Black Nothing" also sketch out an interesting take on the bands sound, though overall the strength of their material is distinctly represented in their normal versions. There's no doubt that Abraid are rapidly progressing up to the next level and finding their own sound, unfortunately though as shown on this effort, they are perhaps a bit too unrestrained at present and would greatly benefit from more developed song structures and dynamic highs and lows. Still, even though there are a few stumbling blocks left in their way, "nightmerica." is an obvious improvement over their last demo and finds them with more identity and conviction than ever before, suggesting they very well may be able to make some truly cathartic and intense music in the not too distant future.