With such an unusual approach and presentation, Pennsylvania-based band YHWH Nailgun stand out amongst the crowd of contemporary Rock music with a refreshingly noisier type of music. Their debut, 45 Pounds was similarly interesting and daring, but suffered from sometimes mediocre vocals and meandering production.
The opening track is as normal this album will get in song structure, fading into a loud tribal-like mess of yelling and powerful percussion while the synthesizers add a playful background noise. Drums pound with a simple yet dissonant rhythm, combining with the deep guitar to create a whirlwind of pain.
After this opener, it never really slows its pace, only getting more intense as it goes on. Unfortunately, the album is only 11 minutes long so these tracks, even if they are quite good and tightly played, don't manage to leave a lasting impact but rather serve more as pieces to one larger work. They blend together to a degree, but due to the great songwriting and performances still feel like their own songs.
The lyrics are mostly nonsensical, scatters of unsavory images all delivered with these very gravelly and menacing vocals. They're massively improved from the debut, while still maintaining the more symbolic nature. A semi-common motif is blood and related things, often blended with pagan or tribal imagery like serpents and feasts. In general this feels like a recording of old, pre-abrahamic Semetic music combined with a more modern tone, something that can be inferred from the band's name itself.
 |
| Yahweh on a whinged wheel, 4th c. BC |
Despite its short length and sometimes half-baked song structures, Magazine is an incredibly promising sophomore release that shines through the mountains of predictable schlock that gets released in Rock nowadays and often even praised. It's a massive improvement from their last album in every way you'd hope, hopefully their 3rd album is even better.
7.5/10
See also: James Chance & The Contortions, [early] Swans
- kreyzi
CountSwagula's rating: 8
stillbeaches' rating: 6.5
No comments:
Post a Comment