Nasty

Love

Written by: PP on 22/05/2013 23:38:26

Beatdown hardcore is one of the few styles of music I still truly struggle to understand fully. Basically it's all about taking testosterone fueled hardcore (think Terror, etc), and slowing it down to a crawl, while removing all other distinguishing features in the process, such as the energetic gang shouts, the groovy down-tuned hardcore riffs, and any other signs of even remote intelligence in music. In other words, it's hardcore all right, but in an even more dumbed-down format.

Enter Nasty, one of the genre champions who I've witnessed stomp through a live set a few times in the past, hating my existence each and every time for the entire duration of their show. "Love", their new album, does nothing to redeem my prejudice about the band as it offers nothing but utterly, ridiculously monotonous and one-dimensional, dumbed-down hardcore designed for the sole purpose of swinging your fists around like windmills while karate kicking innocents in the face for no apparent reason. You can argue that their bottom-heavy guitars have a slight amount of groove, but the artificially decreased speed (ideal for HUGE STOMPS if you know what I mean?) and the uncharismatic grunts take away any points this groove may have given the band in the process.

Towards the end of the album, Nasty include two tracks by the name of "Love" and "Zero Tolerance" where they finally demonstrate an ability to write something else than one-dimensional music. The former, for instance, surprises the listener through some very, very enjoyable clean vocals (courtesy of Craig from Evergreen Terrace) that are actually rather catchy, immediately giving the otherwise harsh grunts and down-tuned riffs the contrast they so badly require to actually stand out. The latter, on the other hand, steps into melodic hardcore with solid melody in the guitar texture coupled with anthemic gang shouts (think almost The Ghost Inside-esque, but slightly heavier). In comparison to the numbing bruisers presented throughout the album so far, these two songs are unparalleled in their quality and sheer musical prowess. Based on these tracks, Nasty are clearly able to write better music than their face value suggests, which begs the question to be asked: why do they insist writing this beatdown shit that has no musical value whatsoever?

Download: Love, Zero Tolerance
For the fans of: beatdown hardcore
Listen: Facebook

Release date 28.02.2013
BDHW

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