Like every true nomad, these guys hail from Manchester (UK) and have managed to get so lost over the last 15 years or so that they even forgot what their own name was. Now, going out under the ever so slightly different ‘Nxmad’, they unleash their second full-length record (or sxphomore, in their world) entitled ‘The Second Fall’.
I like records like this. There’s a lot going on in what is essentially an unavoidable battering ram of a sound. On many of the tracks, in particular opener ‘Mens Rea’ and ‘Vertigo’, the drums follow a Corrosion of Conformity meets Down level of unapologetic skin smashing and swampy swing. Simultaneously, the guitars adopt a holistic chug, with buzzing sensibilities, and a tendency to exude more hardcore influences. The bass is the pump throughout, and provides a level of bite and attack that promotes the impressively produced sound to the fore. The vocals do a bit of a Row of Ashes on my ass and sound like a lower register, slowed down version of some of our favourite Slayer tracks.
As I sat back and simply enjoyed the potency of tracks such as ‘Bridge Burner’, the triplet chugs in ‘Transmissions’ and probably my favourite track ‘Amber’, I felt a sense that these guys really do live up to their, albeit now adjusted, name. They are wanderers through music, tones and dynamics. And the results of this liberation are really bloody impressive.
All is can come up with is that they are, for me, a blackened version of Prong. That is one hell of a fine thing. Highly recommended.
Best Paired With: A Selection of Skins Stretched Over Wooden Frames, Not Knowing Why you Couldn’t Sleep and a Bottle of Lucozade.
Nxmad – The Second Fall is out now on APF Records.
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