It has been noted elsewhere on these pages that there are certain labels in whom you can always trust when it comes to quality. Nefarious Industries are one such label and their output, whilst diverse in terms of genre, is always of the highest quality, even if some of what you may here will disturb you to the very core of your being. Take Chicago-based grind merchants Nequient as a case in point. Their debut album, ‘Wolves at the door’ is every bit as feral as the title implies, the band offering up eleven ear-drum searing tracks in just under forty minutes. Recorded by Pete Grossman (Disrotted) and mastered by Brad Boatright (full of hell), ‘wolves at the door’ will appeal to those who worry converge edge too close to conventional melodicism and is the living embodiment of the term relentless.
Opening with ‘Scorcher’, Nequient apply the explosive grind of Napalm Death to a punk template, Jason Kolkey’s unhinged vocal streaming from the centre of the hardcore maelstrom the band summon around him. Deeply vicious, only the occasional single-string guitar riff from Patrick Conahan allows any element of melody to creep into the mix and, before you know it, your plunged into the seething agit-punk of ‘ROI’, a fair approximation of what punk would sound like if played inside a giant, industrial cement mixer. Social critique combines with searing sonic assault on ‘cult of ignorance’, as Jason spits out his lyrics with a percussive fury underpinned by Chris Avgerin’s superhuman performance on the drums. The track also marks a digression in the album. Up until this point, the tracks have clocked in at under three minutes, the listener requiring a certain respite from the injurious noise, but ‘Screaming across the sky’ tops five minutes, the band taking the opportunity to stretch a point, Patrick even enjoying a rare solo amidst the sonic scree. It all starts out on familiar lines, only for the song to devolve before your very ears, the band indulging in a Cro-Magnon strain of nihilistic doom unheard since the demise of Khanate. This is the point where the album goes from being merely excellent to utterly essential and Nefarious’ unerring talent for spotting the exceptional is once more underscored. In contrast, ‘Mamon and moloch’ is straight-up grind delivered with demented energy and anger. Blink and you’ll miss it, the band marching steadfastly into ‘cat’s cradle’, a convoluted sonic tangle worthy of its name.
At the heart of the album, when all around it is chaos, the seven minute ‘on the day of execution’ is a discordant masterpiece. A churning riff grinds out in the darkness, staccato drums flashing across its surface like artillery fire, recalling the twisted might of Botch at the peak of their not-inconsiderable powers. With Keenan Clifford’s bass tethering the track to some sense of order, ‘on the day of execution’ belies its length, punishing and purifying the listener with each, increasingly savage riff. The rolling thunder of Chris’ drums lead the listener into the sonic meat-grinder that is ‘Kakistocracy’, Jason achieving new heights of vocal-chord savaging brutality over the band’s studied cacophony. Hands down the album’s best title, the hedonistic monster-piece ‘blast beats and cocaine’ fails to achieve even the two-minute mark in its hyper-speed urgency. As a shopping list it’s remarkably to the point and the direct assault is best as the track physically slams into the listener before taking to its heels and vanishing, leaving the way clear for the lengthy ‘coins for the ferryman’ to take advantage of the listener’s weakness and worm its way to the very core of their shattered and shivering soul. With the band demonstrating a remarkable musicianship even whilst wearing their instruments down to splinters, ‘coins for the ferryman’ is another highlight of an album that consistently surprises and engages its listener. It leaves only the destructive finale ‘the devil’s party’ to conclude the album with a sub-three-minute sonic outrage that leaves you dizzy and breathless.
If Nequient had stuck to the three-minute-an-less formula when composing this album, it would have been a solid grind effort characterised by its ferocity and intense musicianship. What raises it to the ranks of the exceptional, however, is when the band break cover to deliver something that, whilst equally intense, traverses different sonic territory. The seven-minute ‘on the day of execution’ is the stand-out track, lurking at the heart of the album, ready to tackle the unwary with a demonic glimmer in its eye, but equally impressive are ‘coins for the ferryman’ and ‘screaming across the sky’, both of which make good use of their expanded run time to explore hitherto unexpected territory. The sense of dynamic works well as the listener is never allowed to become numb to the overwhelming speed of delivery and, overall, ‘wolves at the door’ stands out as an intelligent, cranium-melting work of deviant art. 9
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