ALBUM REVIEW: Everything Dies – Nervus
If you were looking for Britain’s politically-charged, emotionally-motivated and poetic answer to punk-rock luminaries AGAINST ME! then Watford’s NERVUS are top of the list for that honour. Securing their spot with their sophomore effort, Everything Dies.
NERVUS‘ 2016 debut Permanent Rainbow was an exploration of Em Foster’s ongoing struggles with gender dysphoria which was recorded in her bedroom as a personal catharsis, an exorcism of demons if you will. While the bedroom setting is the same, Everything Dies is a far more expansive experience, with the foursome’s raucous punk-infused rock n’ roll evolving track-by-track. The underpinning factor for the evolution between the two records is the confidence in which they deliver their messages disguised as songs, much like the one AGAINST ME! experienced between Transgender Dysphoria Blues and Shape Shift With Me, where the band became comfortable with playing the songs they were writing.
Musically, NERVUS have gone from being the brainchild of a struggling addict seeking personal catharsis to a cohesive, confident, and clinical band with the ability to play arenas. Everything is supersized, and all the better for it. Riffs loop around your ears, while your brain processes Em Foster’s complex thoughts, all the while being delivered to you through harmonies that hit you like a hurricane. More evolutionary then their ability to make their already raucous riffs more raucous is Paul Etienne’s move to the fore as NERVUS‘ curator of melodic movements. Paul’s gentle glimmers of piano pick their moments, often running like a streams undercurrent as distorting guitar lines rumble over it. Single and album highlight Sick Sad World is testament to Foster’s growing confidence in song-writing: the riffs sound massive, the chorus is a CREEPER-ripped arena-ready sing-along, and the subtle piano flourishes underlying it all add a depth of melodic emotion Permanent Rainbow lacked. In fact, much of Everything Dies is akin to CREEPER‘s 2017 debut Eternity, In Your Arms, where pit-worthy punk-rock crosses over with radio-friendly vibes.
Everything Dies, in places often comes off as minimalistic, a trait which for many bands would be an Achilles heel and yet here it affords Em Foster the ability to deliver her message with precision. Juxtaposing the all-too-often feel-good emotions of the music at play, Everything Dies is a lyrical pessimist seeking reform in the shape of optimism. Digging deep into a well of personal problems, Foster presents her experiences like findings in a social experiment against the struggles of battling gender dysphoria in the public sphere, whilst offering up positive takes on negative situations for those listening who may be fighting their own battles. Wrapped up in a colossal tidal wave of riffs is the defining lyrical run of the album on The Way Back: “I’m spending so much time trying to be accepted, but I expect it might never even happen. If I could learn to just accept myself, then fuck everybody else, they can try and fucking kill me.” The proof of the album’s messages are in the pudding, each lyric packed with pessimism, but delivered with a dose of optimism.
Whilst NERVUS have progressed in leaps and bounds since Permanent Rainbow, there are moments where Everything Dies feels like it’s holding back on us a smidgen, as if there are further progressions of sound to come, as if the exploration of their music isn’t yet complete. These glimmers of a futuristic NERVUS come in the album’s closing moments during the five-minute genre-boundary blurring epic Hold Tight and the piano-led closer Fall Apart.
In a world becoming more unsafe for those of us who believe in freedom of expression, NERVUS present a body of work that navigates the struggles of gender dysphoria in the environment we live in, cementing themselves as not only Britain’s answer to AGAINST ME!, but as one of the British Isle’s brightest musical hopes.
Rating: 9/10
Everything Dies is set for release on March 9th via Big Scary Monsters.
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