Album Review: Nasty – Menace
Reviewed by Dan Barnes
Menace is the Belgian-bruiser’s Century Media debut and come three years after Nasty’s last release, Realigion in 2017. With Menace the already pumped up crew have crafted an absolute masterwork of metallic hardcore which is aggressive, heavy and utterly and unremittingly brutal from the outset.
From the opening sirens of Ultimate to the book-ending sirens of the closing instrumental Ballad of Bullets, Menace realises a continuity across its fourteen tracks that is by turns dynamic and destructive but also infused with melody and more than a little groove.
The band waste no time in kicking things off with bile-spitting vocals greeting you almost immediately. Ultimate is dominated by the bass and the hefty, slow-paced chug of stabbing guitar lines. This is unrelenting, muscular hardcore with massive beatdowns to match.
All throughout Menace’s sub-thirty minutes run time you are greeted by slow, precise riffs and big hooks, supplemented by a ranging vocal performance that is at times raw and spewing vitriol while at others clean.
The title track is heavy and explosive and features a full-on guitar sound, while Betrayer is big on the groove, huge on the beatdown and features a clean vocal and a polyphonic chorus.
For all its slower tempo, Menace is packed full of grooves: 666AM and Addicted will lodge themselves into your skull, while the former’s ominous breakdown and disjointed whispered voice will unnerve as much as it excites.
The shorter tracks on Menace act as interludes to the record: Bulletrain, You Will Know My Name and The End of the World are all faster paced than the majority of Menace and provide pounding and explosive intervals in the relentlessness that Nasty have created.
For me, the album highlight is Inhale / Exhale and I was initially slightly disappointed that it wasn’t a Nasum cover until I heard what Nasty had delivered instead. Big hooks and layer vocal lines this is an instant classic and sure to become a permanent fixture in the live set for years to come.
The fact is that Menace is an unrelentingly brutal record that is not without its gentle underbelly and Nasty have the chops to carry it forward into the live arena when all this madness is through. Having been regulars on the festival circuit for many years and now with Century Media in their corner, hope to see Nasty on a stage near you soon.
