Album Review: Calcine – Common Love Common Nausea
Reviewed by Matthew Williams
You would think that this was an opening track to some underground hardcore hip hop album, as when the beat drops on 'Attack to Win' it’s accompanied by a hostile vocal and really gets the head bopping along. Then '23:11' begins and it’s an entirely different animal that emerges from the dark and it is set on pummelling you into submission. It’s angry, aggressive, hateful, venomous, and I bloody love it.
Calcine are a French hardcore band from Paris, who formed in 2021 during COVID. Luc and Lucas recorded a demo and later found the vocalist and bassist, Stef and Arthur. Three short years later, here we are with their explosive debut album 'Common Love Common Nausea'.
It’s a short, sharp, shock to the masses and lyrically the band brings attention to topics such as social oppression, police brutality and racism, animal liberation, racism in the media and the decaying world. So, a virtual smorgasbord of things that are bound to get people riled and angry, which comes across joyously in both the lyrics and the music. Listen to 'Back to Fight' and it’s a proper anthemic hardcore song that will entice fists and spin kicks in the pit from the word go!
The pace is relentless throughout at this stage, with the bass coming though loud and clear, which is always a winner in my eyes. The drums get an absolute hammering in 'Autopsie' and the songs are rapid, over in a flash, giving the listener barely a moment to pause for breath before the next song punches you in the nose. Which duly arrives with 'Target' a song designed to cause the maximum amount of mayhem with audiences, as the riff is like a frenzied knife attack.
'Maleviolence' is one heavy track, before the brilliant 'Amnesic' destroys the parts of your body that are left unscathed. It’s the standout track for me, with one hell of a crunchy ass guitar riff fused with a lethal weapon of a bass line to create 100 seconds of pure hardcore joy that will have fans salivating.
Then it goes back to that hip hop narrative again and musically, a lot more mellow on 'Des vies a bout', before normal service is resumed on the final track, 'Parasite'. Their now trademark sound coming through loud and aggressive, with raging lyrics being spat out over a guitar lead that pierces the soul at every opportunity. As debut albums go, this is a bit of a cracker and sure to set a few fires ablaze wherever it gets aired.
