‘Between II Worlds’: More Than Worth The Wait (Review)

Four years (and two weeks) later, and we’ve finally been treated to NERO’s newest work. Releasing their first studio album since 2011’s Welcome Reality, NERO proved their debut success was a sign of things to come, rather than a one-off. Between II Worlds is everything an album can be, as the production quality, thematic cohesion, emotional pull, and extreme NERO-ness of Between II Worlds put the 12-track work in a class of it’s own.

Our leader-in-the-clubhouse when it comes to the Album of the Year, Between II Worlds joins a bevy of top-notch dance music works released in 2015. Above & Beyond’s We Are All We Need and Excision’s Codename X started our year off better than we deserve, while albums from Jack Ü, Major Lazer, and Bassnectar got us through the summer. If we’re being honest, Between II Worlds has been the album we’ve been looking forward to the most, and it doesn’t disappoint. NERO successfully gives bassheads their darker, heavier version of something similar to Porter Robinson’s Worlds, while creating the most coherently beautiful piece of bass music since The Glitch Mob’s Love, Death, Immortality.

Lucky for us, the British trio are coupling their first album-release in four years with a North American tour. The tour’s penultimate stop comes in the Northwest, with NERO featuring on the first day of FreakNight 2015 at the Tacoma Dome. They’ll be making stops throughout North America before finishing up at Hard Day Of The Dead in Southern California on Halloween. You’ll want to grab your tickets for the groups first stop in the Northwest since they rang in 2013 with a DJ set in Portland, especially with these tunes in their arsenal.

Meeting in their late-teens, Daniel Stephens and Joe Ray began releasing music together as NERO in 2004. After releasing the Requiem EP in 2006 and beginning to feature Alana Watson’s vocals on tracks in 2008, NERO had the base for their debut album. In 2011, Welcome Reality set the table for a career unlike any we’ve yet seen, and Between II Worlds continues that legacy in frighteningly efficient fashion.