### Nothing: Guilty of everything

#### 24/04/14 || The Duff

Nothing have been making waves apparently for sometime now running to this, their debut full-length which is supposed to be for fans of Jesu-style post-rock, and the response to “Guilty of Everything” has apparently also been huge considering.

They say that statistically as a species we are gradually becoming less violent the number of wars first diminishing and secondly the number of casualties per war as well – I’m guessing then we find our violence in superhero reboots and then lament it in the apparent surge of shoegaze’s popularity with black metal outfits testing the waters and finding the response surprisingly positive and now bands like Deafheaven and this here Nothing practically embracing that drab/ethereal ethos to its fullest extent.

“Guilty of Everything” – that there is a loaded title, and while I have yet to complete my interview for the band, apparently they have had a troubled history, or particularly one band-member has. For anyone who feels they don’t belong in this world, which means EVERYBODY YA FUCKERS then this might be your cup of tea for sunny mornings waking up alone – otherwise I suggest you get busy fucking because them pots and pans aren’t gonna clean themselves you know. There is a likeness to Justin Broderick’s Jesu, but for the most part I find this overdone and more akin to the grate of Billy Corgan of Smashing Pumpkins.

The music is layered, quite huge, for a four piece you realize the sparseness of what is on offer were it not for effects. I am not familiar with punk, but I should imagine these guys listened to what a lot of grunge-rock bands like Smashing Pumpkins and Foo Fighters were brought up on; sometimes we get hints of a Radiohead melody, or perhaps an anthemic, arena-rocker that sounds like what the Beatles were on when they wrote “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds”, but I’m sad to say this record does very little for me but chafe my nips – you can probably tell by my absolute shambles of a review that I managed to just claw through our quality checks here and with absolutely 0 dick jokes too.

Bland post-rock meets punk all influenced by a sugar-coated The Cure and loaded with effects; this should have been a stub but I think Relapse had faith in me. I have abused that faith but I don’t know why these guys were signed – Relapse have certainly taken risks in the past, this one sadly has not paid off where a wider, more commercial appeal would perhaps have suited them better in place of struggling with less perspicuous metal masses.

- Information
- Released: 2014
- Label: Relapse Records
- Website: Nothing Bandcamp
- Band
- Brandon Setta, Chris Betts, Domenic Palermo, Kyle Kimball

- Tracklist
- 01. Hymn to the Pillory
- 02. Dig
- 03. Bent Nail
- 04. Endlessly
- 05. Somersault
- 06. Get Well
- 07. Beat Around the Bush
- 08. B&E
- 09. Guilty of Everything