The thing about Washington D.C. post-metal upstarts Nihilitia — aside from members Brad Sheppard (drums), Sara Hussain (vocals/bass) and Chris Thomas (guitar) each having a name I wouldn’t be surprised to see as an anchor on CNN (Anderson Cooper says, “We now go live to Chris Thomas with the story.” I know you can just hear it), and aside from every other letter in their name being ‘i,’ which I actually quite enjoy because it’s like one of those S.A.T. pattern tests — is that they sound a whole lot like Made Out of Babies. In the instance of their Keya Records debut, titled Nihilist Militia in case you didn’t get what they were going for with the name, recording with Joel Hamilton (Made Out of Babies, The Book of Knots) didn’t do much to distinguish them from the Brooklyn four-piece who, until now, have had a relative monopoly on female-fronted art metal. Or at least new school female-fronted art metal, one would be remiss to not mention Jarboe as the conceptual matriarch.

In any case, that’s not to say Nihilitia are completely unoriginal. Particularly in their slower movements, they settle, unafraid, into grooves all their own. Likewise, the versatility in Hussain‘s voice presents itself with less of the outright emotional turbulence associated with Made Out of Babies frontwoman Julie Christmas. Still, the one is the closest and most appropriate comparison for the other.

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