Format: CD
Label: Relapse Records
Release Date: 05/20/2016
“Don’t Cry For Us, We’re Already Dead” - W.N.
Over the past decade, Weekend Nachos has made a name for themselves with their relentless touring schedule, for playing frenetic shows both great in size (like Rain Fest 2012 and Obscene Extreme) and crowded and cramped with a variety of notable metal and hardcore bands. They’ve released five EPs, four full-length albums and three splits which have garnered both critical acclaim and the attention and respect of fans the world over.
In October of 2016, after six months of touring Japan, Southeast Asia, Europe and playing a few shows on the east coast of the United States with bands like The Afternoon Gentlemen, Primitive Man and Wormrot, Weekend Nachos is calling it a day.
The album “Apology” marks the band’s final salvo, and its impact is very great indeed.
Lyrically, the release is a judgment on scene politics, a declaration of apartness from the fellowship of man (and an exhortation to live simply, in righteousness, for one’s self and for the betterment of others), an ode to violent hatred of police, informants, politicians and of multinational corporations, an affirmation of the vanity of existence, an examination of addiction and past mistakes, an anthem to anarchy and a bitter oath to a violent end.
In the track “Writhe,” which was released in a streaming version through Relapse Records’ website, vocalist John Hoffman angrily explains in the space of a minute the horrific consequences of long-term alcoholism. The despair in his voice is clear and abundant. With statements like “much deserved torture / I know I’ll never fucking learn” and “I’m a stain / I know I won’t last long,” he echoes the shameful feelings and sense of dread fatalism that so many alcoholics learn over time.
In the track “Writhe,” which was released in a streaming version through Relapse Records’ website, vocalist John Hoffman angrily explains in the space of a minute the horrific consequences of long-term alcoholism. The despair in his voice is clear and abundant. With statements like “much deserved torture / I know I’ll never fucking learn” and “I’m a stain / I know I won’t last long,” he echoes the shameful feelings and sense of dread fatalism that so many alcoholics learn over time.
“What’s a man without his friends? Nothing but dust,” declares Hoffman in the track “Dust.” This statement, however, isn’t a positive assertion of the power of unity in the hardcore or metal scenes. Throughout this track, he rails, screaming with all his might and disgust, against the negative aspects of the social dynamics in these communities. “Nothing but dust, nothing to us.”
If you think the lyrics are all as vehemently morose, I assure you that the calls to arms in “Fake Political Song” are at least delivered as honestly as can be imagined from a band famous for its anti-political rhetoric. “Man made army / killing the scum / HOW THE FUCK DO YOU THINK REAL SHIT GETS DONE?”
But, it’s in songs like “POW MIA” and, later, “Night Plans,” that the human spirit of Hoffman’s lyrics truly, darkly shines. In the first example, “do you know what it’s like to live in fear? do you know what it’s like to disappear?” seems far less an attempt at vocal intimidation and much more like real questions, a cry for help. As for the homicidal “Night Plans,” he says, without bravado or ego, that he makes choices beyond the grave. In this song he seems resigned to perdition, but would take out many with him before he finally descends.
As for the music on “Apology,” it’s extremely tight and mean-spirited. Engineered by Weekend Nachos guitarist Andy Nelson at Chicago’s Bricktop Studios, it’s very full sounding and at times, with a piano interlude (credited to Mike Kinsella) on the nearly ten minute long instrumental title track, “Apology” is even gorgeous. However, this is a damned vicious sounding album. The tracks are honest blasters, tempering blazing fast attacks of percussive blasts and d-beats with measured, crushing blows from riffs and a dragging of the listener through dirt only to pull them up by their collar and repeat these punishments in creative variations.
That sonic template may seem par for the course for most powerviolence bands, but this is a band that absolutely understands the musical paces of hardcore, metal and sludge while adding their unique and experimental style to them. Moreover, this band exudes and exemplifies through their music the commanding emotions prevalent in each of those styles, making them preeminent examples of what can be done in these genres.
Apart from stylistic classifications, a person can easily feel what Weekend Nachos is seeking to inspire through their music, which, ultimately, is the compulsion to bang heads, to engage in visceral exercise and, by the album’s end through its last, alternately introspective-sounding and staggeringly heavy and slow track, unwind from the powerful tension and controlled madness they’ve created over the album’s thirty-seven minute duration.
This final album from Weekend Nachos is no apology. It’s a brutal and uncompromising farewell.
- Reviewed for Mondo Metal STL by Richard Jaspering
Weekend Nachos on Bandcamp
Tags: #powerviolence, #sludge, #weekendnachos, #relapserecords, #apology
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