Recently, I’ve been getting a lot of industrial and electric
\nrock to review. I don’t know if the genre is making a comeback, or
\nis trying to reassert itself as the ship known as alternative rock
\nsinks faster than the
\nTitanic<\/i> loaded with lead bars. Last week, we looked at one
\nband, Rorschach Test, who are doing a fine job at making sure that
\nalternative (and industrial) rock still has a pulse.<\/p>\n
A similar effort is being waged by Phoenix-based Nihil, whose
\ndebut album
\nDrown<\/i> was just released. And though it’s harder to get into
\n(as well as through) than other albums in the same vein, it ends up
\nbeing a rather enjoyable work – as long as you’re willing to invest
\nthe effort into it.<\/p>\n
The brainchild of Scott Crowley (vocals\/guitars\/programming),
\nNihil’s lineup also includes keyboardist Vanessa Urso and bass
\nguitarist Tony Richey. Together, these three produce a kind of
\nindustrial\/electronic music that often reminds me of Front 242, if
\nnot nearly as danceable – but it does take time for the whole
\nmixture to get boiling.<\/p>\n
It’s not that songs like “Under Me” or “Nowhere To Hide” aren’t
\ngood, they just don’t suck you into the whole Nihil experience like
\nI would have expected them to. On several occasions, I found that I
\nhad become distracted from the songs, and had to start the disc
\nover again – the first few songs shouldn’t create that kind of a
\nresponse with the listener. (I can’t explain how this could have
\nbeen improved – it’s kind of a thing that you know when you hear
\nit.) And I will freely admit that “Hear Me” – both versions – are
\nquite good.<\/p>\n
The tide starts to turn for the better with the two-minute
\n“snippet” “God”, which segues into “Shift”. About this time,
\nDrown<\/i> really takes off as an album and turns it into an
\nexperience. Cuts like “Should Die,” “Tear,” “Trust” and “Echo” show
\nthe power that this band has. It is creepy at times, intense at
\nothers, but for a good portion of
\nDrown<\/i>, it rarely lets up.<\/p>\n
The only drawback to
\nDrown<\/i>, besides the slow start? I don’t think you can deny
\nthat Nihil – just like may industrial\/electronic groups, for that
\nmatter – is an acquired taste. The first time you hear Crowley’s
\nvocal intensity, it might throw you for a loop, and you might not
\nwant to continue checking the disc out. It’s worth getting your
\nfeet wet with this one and giving it a chance to grow on you – on
\nrepeated listens, Nihil proves themselves to be quite talented
\nmusicians.<\/p>\n
\nDrown<\/i> reminds me of learning how to swim: it splashes about
\nmadly in the beginning before it finds its groove and settles into
\na comfortable, approachable patterm. For a first effort, not bad at
\nall – and I have no doubts that future releases will be strong
\nefforts from cover to cover.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27502,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[7351],"rating":[5612],"class_list":["post-38876","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-nihil","rating-rating-b-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38876","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38876"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38876\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27502"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38876"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38876"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=38876"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=38876"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}