Review | Nita Strauss – The Call Of The Void

Sumerian Records

Nita Strauss has established herself as one of the best rock guitarists in the field, especially while siding with the legendary Alice Cooper for almost a decade. And she has grown as a force of her own since. With her solo record `Controlled Chaos’ she set the beacons, leaning on the broad shoulders of the avid 80s shred-guitar scene, reaching new horizons spotlighting her recording and song writing abilities. `The Call of the Void’ picks up where she left off, except….

THE GUITAR SKILLS OF NITA STRAUSS

Establishing your name amidst the best instrumental recording guitarists is one, reaching new and broader audiences is two. With `The Call of the Void’ Strauss reaches beyond the horizon and brings a radiant group of talented and renowned vocalists to the fold, directing her to write and construct a variety of metal songs while maintaining her ambitions as a player showcasing her skills and talents. ,,Summer Storm” opens colorful embedding the summer vibe, prior before the storm breaks loose with jagged heavy riffs and progressive time changes. The djent raises to astounding level with Nita laying down wonderful melodies and double harmonies atop the thrashy tempo. 

It marks her skills and raises the bar for her compositional skills injecting modern genre styles in the cocktail with Arch Enemy’s Alissa White-Gluz roaring fiercely on the blistering melodic death metal track ,,The Wolf You Feed” that displays Glutz wide range with hard grunts and growls before going mega melodic on the bridge and chorus. 

IN FLAMES

Touching deeper in this direction Strauss has Ander Fridén (her In Flames idol) roaring ,,The Golden Trail”into action. Blunt force trauma and classic melo-death over intrinsic riff luster and towering lead melodies in the sterling chorus, the song wells with 90s grandeur. These two songs display radiant craftmanship with Nita bringing new sound to the plate. She serves the typical heavy riffs and melodic muscles, while revealing her keen ear for modern and classic metal variety. It is all smartly embedded in the songs without straying from the set course. Great moments by the dozens such as shred-laden ,,Monster” with its guitar variety and 80s guitar melodies and pitches. Licking it up with wonderful melodies, it is smeared onto the modern wall of metal with Lilith Czar (ex-Atomic Loveletter) adding clean but powerful vocals. The melodies are flourishing with a lot of rhythmic sidesteps and conceptual musical breaks.

Synth-digi she teams up with Chris Motionless (Motionless in White) for the marching ,,Digital Bullets”, a potion she shakes up on the rousing stadium rocker ,,Through the Noise” with Lizzy Hale (Halestorm) at the helm. More traditional, but heavily influenced by modern rock bands, Strauss roars with towering guitar licks and melodies. Switching vocalists constantly Nita introduces Disturbed’s David Draiman on ,,Dead Inside”. Scatting raps out belting a near baritone chorus, Draiman twists the song into spiralling form as Nita injects her most jagged stop ‘n go riff-rage while pitching a sticky melody on top. The song whirls with wonderful interplay and modern jabs of keys.

CLASSICAL SHREDDING

Drawing the modern compass utilized steering her musical direction, ,,Victorious” is another stadium rocker with modern tongue and tone. Singer Dorothy Martin (Dorothy) brings the right swagger to pull ahead. Touching with light melo-goth tone but powerful in the rousing segments, the song’s stomp is dominant. In this light hard rock royalty isn’t out of place in the modern ,,Winner Takes All”, though buried in the overall power of the track’s roaring and rousing riff-bliss and groove. Alice has to draw from his deepest vein and roars and echoes vividly. 

Amidst all this vocal extravaganza Nita Strauss also maintains her classical shredding stride with excellent performances on well phrased progressive segmented ,,Consume the Fire” and the glorious tinged ,,Scorched”, which contradicts enormously with its title. The song has a memorable Tamás Szekeres tinged guitar melody and brings ebbing emotions across. It contradicts insanely with the extremely heavy ,,Momentum” that opens with speed and death tantrum hammered into the darning voids of Strauss’ raw riff carnage. Going melodic the song starts to tower with momentum as Nita brings her most poignant playing to the front. The breaks are heavy and weld to the progressive drumming, bearing the 80s shred all over. When Strauss fires up the engine with her dazzling arpeggios and towering note-salvos at the song’s end, we have witnessed modern shred metal at its finest. 

NITA STRAUSS – THE CONCLUSION

Closing it in style Strauss rings the finest to the front with the Marty Friedman (`Scenes’) reminiscent ethereal ,,Kintsugi”, followed by the duel with the master himself on (the non-album track) ,,Surfacing” that unites their styles into a wonderful epic moment of joy. Both play at the top of their game, feeding of each other’s most melodic mojo.  

It feels natural as well as insanely varied exploring the sonic landscape of heavy metal. The outcome is a varied mix with Strauss guarding the overall tone. `The Call of the Void’ is Nita Strauss at the top of the game ready to jump and ignite the spark of life with insanely well rafted fresh metal songs.

Release date: 7 July 2023