First Impressions are whiz-bang reviews of singles, 7″s, EPs, and LPs which are given a review after a single listen. This is a great way for TGEFM to showcase some of the releases which may not get a full review on their own.
Convulse Records, 06 Jan 2023
Now here's something. Nag is a band from Georgia that describes themselves as alternately “hardcore punk”, “goth”, “post-punk”, and “darkwave” (though I'd also consider adding “deathrock”). Human Coward Coyote is the new album from the band that has previously offered up full-lengths including Observer and Dead Deer (neither of which I've heard), out via Convulse Records.
On Human Coward Coyote, the band immediately staggers with the ominous opener “Phangs”. The guitar riff, the feedback, the noise – it's all somehow violent, even as the song slowly plods along – a trick reapplied later on the great “Q-Laz”. Songs like the back-to-back “Camoflage” and “Crisis of Faith” lean more into a typical hardcore pacing. “Space” and “Frozen Dirts” are pulverizing – “Space” sounding off-the-rails and “Frozen Dirts” destroying with a dirty guitar riff that leaves me battered. And “Repulsion” is a lot like a great Joy Division song to me (though more serrated), and probably my favorite on the album. Even the atmospheric and feedback-heavy instrumental pieces, “Kismet” and “Permafrost”, land right – it's all a part of the claustrophobic mood. This is one of those albums that is unrelenting in its aura – almost hypnotizing. It's dirty, noisy, and disorienting. And it leaves me wanting to come back.
- Favorite Song: “Repulsion”
- Album Release Date: 06 Jan 2023
- Purchase/Pre-Order/Pre-Save: Bandcamp and Convulse Records
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ryan is a reviewer and news editor for TGEFM. He's very secretive, he might be an alien.
