Tuesday 17 February 2015

NIC (aka ██████ aka the band with no name)

GenresPunk / Rock / Post-Rock / Post-Hardcore / Post-Metal / Black Metal / Screamo / Hardcore / Thrash / Doom / Ambient / Skramz
Related artists?.
CountryPlzen CZECH REPUBLIC
Years Active2012-present
Song: "V"
Album: "Old Soul split"
Year: 2014
Label(s): Zegema Beach Records / IFB Records / Dingleberry Records / Maniyax Records / Pike Records / Mosh Potatoes / Suspended Soul Records
This post's artist is from the January 2014 Mix. This is track #1.
You can download: the February Mix#12 right here or get the new March 2015 Mix#1 here.
For fans ofDeafheaven, Old Soul, AmenRa, Avvika, Buried Inside, EndamoriAngel Eyes, EnvyCity Of Caterpillar, So Hideous, My Love, The Flying Worker, MonoHaunter, Pluie and Respire aka PROPER SCREAMO.

Like a gorgeous vampire, ██████ (aka NIC aka "the band with no name") will lull you in with long, post-metal/doom slow bits before ripping your head off and feasting upon the goo inside - errr, blasting black-metal/screamo down your ear canals. The only reason I even know about this band is because they approached Old Soul in hopes of doing a split 12" and I am trying to release anything with Old Soul's name on it (because they fucking rule) and one day the wav files showed up in my email and I nearly shat myself. NIC/██████'s split material is much like Old Soul but dirtier, rawer and abrasive. It's melodic and pretty but in an uncomfortable, itchy kind of way. Following a quick, chaotic beginning and clean, Mono/Envy-esque midsection "V" hits an AmenRa mood spot on 3/4 of the way through this much shorter, 6-minute song. Those vocals are so haunting, it's crazy to think they were made by a human, especially during the absolute insanity that is the outro. The prodigiously epic, 15-minute "VI" ends all things with a Monuments Collapse styled riff that's slow and head bobbin' before shit gets simply ridiculous after the 4:06-mark . At 6:30 the song hibernates for about three minutes before coming back around full circle and dipping back into a suspiciously Egyptian/doomy guitar riff.

The band's 'Demo' material has the same edge as the split material but it's nowhere near as sharp. "I" reminds me of Angel Eyes and Deafheaven, with massive builds that pay off in crushing, spacey and seething blasts of, at least what I picture, a sea of starving zombie/vampires licking like waves in a vat of darkness. Yep. That sounds about right. "II" is the band's shortest track to date, clocking in at 4:44 and is downright scathing. "III" boasts some very melodic and obvious instrumentals that make this the most accessible song they've done to date (although things get pretty speedy on the drums at 3:26) and "IV" focuses again on eerie black-metal and ends in Buried Inside fashion, which is just plain awesome.

NIC/██████ was a huge reason why the Old Soul/██████ split 12" was listed as my favourite split release of 2014 in my best of list - so jam these tracks pronto and break the international barrier.

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DISCOGRAPHY

2013 - Demo (stream/buy here)

2014 - Old Soul split 12" (stream/buy here)

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(2014) ██████ - "V" (from 'Old Soul' split)

(2014) ██████ - "VI" (from 'Old Soul' split)

(2013) ██████ - "I" (from 'Demo')

(2013) ██████ - "III" (from 'Demo')

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██████ additional links

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2 comments:

  1. wow this is sooooooo much better than The Angelic Process. The best 14 minutes of my laiiifff!!!! now, where's the fucking remote control.

    ReplyDelete