NERVER - Believer's Hit
From the sonic marriage of noise-rock and hardcore punk comes an offspring that is swampy, aggressive and visceral. Nerver come from Missouri (USA) and released their debut LP Believer’s Hit. Composed of 10 crushing songs, Believer’s Hit can hit you slowly but surely like in the theme No song to stop the rain or as fast as a bullet like in Pissing gold.
Lyrically, it leaves you with angsty and somewhat dark moods with a long shadow being cast and reminding us of other doomy prophets of pessimism like Unsane or No Trend.
From the depths of aggression and restlessness to the more introspective and delicate like in We had encountered a meta-psychotic, Nerver is able to reach a broad spectrum of moods in an album that manages to stay heavy, addictive and an excellent listen for those that want their noise-rock as dark and brutal as possible.
SNAG - The Only Rational Response
The only Rational Response by Snag is filled of 9 songs of screamo with highly technical structures and rhythms patterns that are as melodic as they are progressive, forming ambiances that switch between the screamy punk hardcore and the more calm and melodic passages reminiscent of some indie rock like in the theme Fire Escape.
Climate change and the nefarious damage made by humankind to our environment seems to be of great concern in the album being that the songs are charged with a mix of rebellion and despair. In the song that names the album, the intro is a quote from the movie First Reformed: "If humankind can't overcome its immediate interest enough to ensure its own survival, then you're right, the only rational response is despair." It does take sensitivity to obliterate the anthropocentrism that has been dominant and that has caused such damage to the ecological structures. It takes some courage to approach the issues that are currently threatening several ecosystems and taking us each step closer to an eventual apocalypse. Despair and courage seem to hold hands in the struggle for balance.
Snag manages to stay melodic while at the same time producing hymns that challenge our own views about the world and the roles we have in it. A fresh new LP of screamo with a message as urgent and delicate as can be.
MEDITATIONS IN AFFINITY - #2 Cultivation
The second volume of the series Meditation in Affinity by Zegema Beach Records and The Ghost is Clear features Nerver, And Its name was Epyon, People’s Temple Project and Apostles of Eris.
The first song, General Erosion of Morale by Nerver is a tumultuous assault of noisy and swampy rock with heavy riffing and distortion allied to a duo of vocals that create an interesting dynamic between the screamed and frantic and the more sombre and dark.
Then it follows with Side Seven by And Its name was Epyon, a very fast and addictive drum pattern that support energic riffs and screamed vocals that hail as much emotion as restlessness, with a very calm passage of spoken word that blossom into a catchy chorus.
2:16 by People’s Temple Project starts of slow and wandering like an active jam session and turns into a blistering mass of whirling guitars and screamed vocals that mix some more classic emo patterns with free improvisation and a dandy guitar soloing.
The end song, The Kobodera, is courtesy of Apostle of Eris with a blasting duo of vocals that scream their lives out accompanied by heavy ridden but catchy riffs with a whole lot of reverb typical of the European screamo scene.
It’s a short but sweet addition to this 4-way series.
Text: Cláudia Zafre