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Rating: 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.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 Particles (01:15)
Energy in its purest form
Doesn’t matter where it’s from
Feeding of the light
Grinding it to dust
A huge vibrating mass
That is ready to explode
Feeding of the light
Grinding it to dust
We’re just particles
With guilt and shame
We’re just particles
With ourselves to blame
Energy in its purest form
Doesn’t matter where it’s from
Feeding of the light
Grinding it to dust
19 Fury (02:36)
Reaching for the end, I wouldn't hold my breath
Smothered thoughts, all alike, machine-like beings walk on by
...through smouldering remains...
Scorched by flames, from the burning cold
Mental ice-age, reality postponed
When all is said and done, what will be left of you?
All signs point towards regression
None show the width of their obsession
...the undeniable truth...
So weak, so forgotten and so forfeit
Without conscience and without faith
No beliefs to call your own, their origin remains unknown
No equality in present day
There's been no progress made
You're still here to produce and to consume
No equality in present state
There's been no progress made
And we're all still their slaves
Shocking truth, deliverer of pain
Better start to move, don't just sit and drown in shame
...of not doing anything...
When the seas calm down
But only then will our fury finally sleep
Until then this whip will deal out its' lashes constantly
No equality in present day
There's been no progress made
You're still here to produce and to consume
No equality in present state
There's been no progress made
And we're all still their slaves
And we're all still their slaves
21 Ett inflammerat sår (00:58)
Vägen som du valt är krokig, skev och sämst
Ett steg framåt, två steg bakåt, sen faller du ihop
Alla bara garvar och du står där och skäms
Kan inte vara lätt att vara världens idiot
Ett inflammerat sår - din jävla politik stinker som ett ruttet lik
Ett inflammerat sår - vi längtar efter dagen då du ruttnar i graven
22 Deleted Scenes (02:34)
Surprise, surprise
Now you see through all the lies
It is there before your eyes
The degradation of human lives
Is truth on display
In papers and on the news today?
Is everything OK?
Hardly – it’s all just a fucking play!
What you see is their final cut
Real life censored shot by shot
So realise that truth is hacked up by knifes
Do you trust the news?
Do you buy their made up views?
Let me ask you: what’s the use
Of a media you cannot choose?
Hail to the TV-screen!
So many truths to choose between
All the blood and all the screams
Collected as deleted scenes
What you see is their final cut
Real life censored shot by shot
So realise that truth is hacked up by knifes
Do you trust the news?
Do you buy their made up views?
Let me ask you: what’s the use
Of a media that you cannot choose?
Hail to the TV-screen!
So many truths to choose between
All the blood and all the screams
Collected as deleted scenes
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