Weekend Nachos – Still
…
Every time I read something online about Weekend Nachos, someone inevitably comments about their name. It’s usually in the “that’s goofy, I’m not gonna bother with it” vein. Your loss, pal. For starters, who doesn’t get excited about the prospect of delicious appetizers on a Saturday? Those of you who overcome the self-righteous indignation of listening to bands without cult-approved names can testify to the power this band wields. Still, their fourth album since 2007, only builds upon a legacy of massive energetic hate.
The album rips open with “Sickened No More”, a 45-second sonic distillation of Agnostic Front’s “Your Mistake”. Vocalist John Hoffman has the powerviolence delivery down, but switches gears easily to death metal growling (“Satan Sucker”) and back. Much has been made of the breakdowns in Weekend Nachos songs; they’re more akin to sludge metal dirges than hardcore slams. On Still, the band push limits and slows them even further, like the last minute of “Watch You Suffer” and the end of both “Ignore” and “Yes Way”. It sounds like an actual breakdown of order; of machinery or man, I can’t tell. Plus there’s a sweet Unsane midsection in “Broken Mirror”.
Clocking in at under 22 minutes, Still has excellent replay value and loses none of its intensity. Lean, efficient, and rabidly angry: that’s the antithesis of actual weekend nachos, but an X on the rock upon which Weekend Nachos stand.
Still is out now via Relapse Records. Stream it below via Decibel.
…
…
