Night Fever

Vendetta

Written by: PP on 22/02/2015 02:12:52

Within the underground music scene in Copenhagen, an explosive hardcore punk group has been brewing for quite some time, shielded from the eyes of the press and the general public. Since 2010's debut EP "New Blood", Night Fever have been turning heads in K-town thanks to their relentlessly passionate live performance, whilst showing disdain to press coverage or other fanfare, cultivating their status as the perfect embodiment of the DIY music culture in Denmark. Likewise, last year's "Vendetta" EP was released with little hype, once again leaving the band's numerous live appearances to speak for themselves. As a result, the band have gained a small, but dedicated cult following locally, culminating with unwavering crowd support at this year's When Copenhell Freezes Over event in late January. We're still not sure we agree after covering the band with six live reviews over the past five years.

Stylistically, Night Fever offer a characteristically Danish take on hardcore punk. They inject a boatload of attitude and a rock'n'roll twist into the style, which essentially boils down to sounding exactly the same as the countless generic rock'n'roll bands in this country - just with d-beat rhythm instead. The focal point of the band is vocalist Salomon, whose style might be unique in its perfectly balanced spot between yells and The Misfits-inspired cleans, but at the same time suffers from lack of variety and, at least on record, from lack of charisma that'd make the songs memorable over the long run. Instrumentally, the band rip and tear apart hardcore punk songs at the same unchanged tempo throughout the record, checking pretty much every generic box available for releases in this genre without offering anything to make up for the shortfalls. Symbolic with the 'ungdomshuset' punk scene, it's all about playing fast and hard with metallic influence, traditional songwriting ideals be damned.

The result is a rather one-dimensional sound. Highlights "Transparent", "This Ain't A Game" and "Hate" are decent, but never more than that. The vocals stay unvaried throughout the course of the record, which means the 23 minutes of the EP ends up feeling way too long for its own good, which is obviously not a good sign for such a short record. Moreover, the band's take on hardcore punk is not particularly interesting nor memorable, so what you're left with is a sense of a band that has a fire burning inside them in terms of passion. That part is well captured on "Vendetta" - sadly it doesn't translate into anything relevant on the international punk / hardcore scene.

6

Download: Transparent, This Ain't A Game, Hate
For the fans of: Danzig, Poison Idea
Listen:Facebook

Release date 09.10.2014
Self-Released

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