Welcome Reality
Mercury
***
Dubstep has reached dizzying heights of popularity in mainstream music this year. Artists such as the pop princess Britney Spears and the heavy metal band Korn have recently capitalised on the trend.
The UK dubstep duo Nero, best known for their remixes and production credits, have been making music for years but have only just released their first album. Welcome Reality is set in an alternate musical universe in the year 2808, suggesting that Nero are hundreds of years ahead of their musical contemporaries, and promises commercial success.
The album is very high-energy, with in-your-face epic sounds. The album's first single, Promises, reached number one on the UK singles chart, and Reaching Out has a catchy hook and an infectious bass wobble that guarantee it will be a massive hit. While the album abounds with commercial appeal, not all the songs on Welcome Reality fall into the comfortable category of generic fare.
Tracks such as the guitar-laden Scorpions and the thunderously epic Doomsday show the group's originality and are sure to be hits with even the biggest dubstep doubter. Even though they lose touch with their ambitious concept at times and fall into generic territory, Nero manage to rework the overused genre from a refreshing angle that promises much more to come.