Nightfeeder Cut All of Your Face Off LP
It took me a while to sit down with this one and write about it, yet I listened to it most of last year. It is one of the best records of 2022. NIGHTFEEDER was introduced to me in demo form by a friend and I was blown away. Then came an excellent EP, and this debut LP is the pinnacle of their sound. Song subjects cover such punk life issues as psychological torment, the existential, and being irreverently maligned by the system. What NIGHTFEEDER does best is rip with the feeling of blood, sweat, anguish, and angst. I’m not sure it’s really a formal term, but this is American crust as a style of hardcore punk that was sincerely invented by the members of this band (DEATHRAID, CONSUME, SHITLIST, STATE OF FEAR, DISRUPT…) and the regions where they started playing punk. NIGHTFEEDER plays with US thrash and hardcore influences and European/Scandi-crust dynamics, while delivering a classic hard rock’n’roll sound when they feel like it, because they fuckin’ feel like it. That is the attitude of this band and record in a nutshell. An amalgamation of MOTÖRHEAD, POISON IDEA, CRUCIFIX, INEPSY, DISFEAR, and DISCARD comes to mind. I’m even finding some RUDIMENTARY PENI chords here. Cut All of Your Face Off is a must if you’re looking for a gut-punch that is not any form of DIY trend and is like the quintessential hardcore punk and crust records from the last several decades. If you haven’t heard it in person, you’ll put the needle down on Side One and go “holy shit…”—that’s pretty much the reaction I get from others every time. And on Side Two, they turn the burners up all the way. The drumming on “Amoral Minority”…ugh. The LP is dismal, charred punk rock goodness (grief) from start to finish.