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Showbread
Nervosa
Artist Info: Discography
Album length: 12 tracks: 00 minutes, 00 seconds
Street Date: May 13, 2008
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With each new release from Showbread, fans can count on somewhat of a
different sound than the last time around. Though you can always tell that
it's Showbread, it always differs slightly. On Nervosa, the second disc of
their new project, some of the elements of Anorexia are incorporated, but
it almost serves as a backtrack session. It sounds as if Josh Dies' solo
project The Aesthetics of Violence and Showbread's No Sir, Nihilism Is Not
Practical got married and their firstborn child is Nervosa.
Nervosa starts off with a bang, with the electronic rocker "The
Journey." Throw in a guest spot for Family Force 5 frontman, Soul Glow
Activatur, and it makes for one of the album highlights. Another rock out
track follows shortly thereafter, titled "The Sky," which utilizes some
harmony in the chorus that is quite the nice touch, complementing the
screams very nicely. "The Flies," the first of two instrumentals, is
pretty mild for about a minute and a half, then frantic screaming from the
story's character, Nervosa, breaks in with loud and vicious guitars. After
about another minute, the music fades back down into the calm it was
before. "The End (Omega)," the second instrumental, keeps itself pretty low
key throughout, and only clocks in at about two and half minutes. Ivory
makes a second appearance on "The Goat," a classic Showbread raw rock
track, which also features an unlikely appearance from Squad 5-O frontman,
Jeff Fortson. The album ends on a beautiful note, keeping God's love,
mercy and unfathomable forgiveness at the forefront. And most of the song,
"The Beginning," is sung by none other than Reese Roper, who has the
ability to bring out the passion in the lyrics through his singing. At
times it seems somewhat reminiscent of the Five Iron Frenzy favorite "Every
New Day," only at a much slower tempo.
As with the Anorexia album, Nervosa is also the soundtrack for a
story. This time, the main character is Anorexia's sister, Nervosa. Her
story is very similar to Anorexia's, only instead of building a huge tower,
Nervosa tries to escape the world by digging a hole. A big, deep
hole. The story starts with Nervosa declaring, "To submerge into the
depravity of the dirt, surely this is the greatest adventure that there is
to know. I will dig a hole in order to tunnel miles into the most sordid
core of this horrible planet earth. I will experience the most reckless
feats of immorality and know every pleasure that there is to know. This
will be my life's work, in my quest I will discover something to make me
whole." Again, there is a quite a bit of listening involved in the story,
more so than with its counterpart, making it difficult to concentrate on
the imagery at times. Nervosa's adventure is similar to her sister's,
being attacked by seemingly ordinary animals (a pig, a goat, some flies),
and in the end she also discovers the worthlessness of her attempt to reach
fulfillment in worldly things. Again, I can't bear to say anything about
the ending. It's something you just have to check out for yourself, as it
is quite a beautiful ending.
For the on-again-off-again fans of Showbread who left the band at the
release of Age of Reptiles, Nervosa can easily be the album that brings
them back in again. The sounds of No Sir..., with a little bit of genre
progression, could be just what they've been waiting for. For those who
wanna go deeper, or the hardcore Showbread fans, or even suckers for
special edition packages with some sweet extras (Storm The Gates of Hell
anyone?), make sure you pick up the whole shabang (i.e. Anorexia AND Nervosa). You'll kick yourself if
you don't.
- Review date: 5/7/08, written by Scott Fryberger of Jesusfreakhideout.com
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 Record Label: Tooth & Nail Records
Album length: 12 tracks: 00 minutes, 00 seconds
Street Date: May 13, 2008
Buy It: Amazon.com
- The Journey
- The Vulture
- The Sky
- The Dirt
- The Dirt (Alpha)
- The Pig
- The Flies
- The Goat
- The Death
- The End
- The End (Omega)
- The Beginning
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