Nasum
Shift

THE REVIEW

Monumental. That Nasum were a standout in the entire global grind scene, as well as one of the most interesting extreme bands seen in recent years, I believe is beyond doubt. You always know what to expect from them: an equation where music and violence become the same thing, where the guitar cuts like a knife, the voice suffocates like a noose, and the drums fire like a machine gun. Pure uncontrolled hate, pure fury supported by an unparalleled compositional and executional skill in the genre, which for a demanding type of music like this becomes ever more crucial.

Hell's flames, literally: those flames burning in "Helvete," which means, surprise surprise, "Hell." And this new "Shift" only confirms what we already knew about this immense group, the best we could expect from Nasum. When the band starts, it bites the throat without giving any respite, without the slightest mercy: and that's how the massacre begins, a violent sound vortex where the unsuspecting listener is hurled without any chance of escaping intact: 24 songs concentrated in 38 minutes. Compressed like the atoms of an atomic bomb, with an average duration of one minute per song, waiting to enter a CD player to explode. This is the way Nasum chose to express their artistic streak, through compositions that make most extreme sound nihilism their raison d'être, composed to be suffered rather than listened to, to live through distilled hate and suffering (both mental and physical) the emotions that music can evoke. And so we find ourselves in front of compositions like the wonderful "The Deepest Hole" that drags the listener along, injecting emotions at an unlikely speed, bringing out from the bottom a melodic sensitivity filtered through the most annihilating executional violence; or we might also find pieces that compress their meaning and intensity into a handful of seconds, like "No Paradise For The Damned" or "Fear Is Your Weapon," or again pieces that make of the solid and energetic riffing their rule, like in the first seconds of the beautiful "The Smallest Man" or in the solutions chosen for "Circle Of Defeat": riffs heavy as rocks, adopted by countless death metal bands but never played with such accuracy, brutality, and intensity.

If I don’t award a well-deserved 5/5 it's only because "Helvete" is unsurpassable and because, as is logical, the album in question is suitable for a too narrow audience segment to conceive its true potential. Nonetheless, listening to "Shift" is an experience that not only every lover of extreme music but also anyone who wants to discover in how many ways the strongest and hidden sensations can be expressed, should try at least once in their life.