ALBUM REVIEW: What A Fucking Nightmare – The Chisel
In the spirit of the band in question let’s not mince words here: THE CHISEL are bloody brilliant. Their debut full-length Retaliation was one of the best records of 2021 – already something of a modern classic that threw together all the best bits of Oi!, street-punk, hardcore and UK82 – and with the London-based five-piece having gone on to hone their reputation as a live act and make considerable waves across the pond in the couple of years since then they clearly have no intention of messing with a winning formula for their sophomore album What A Fucking Nightmare.
Which means, obviously, that this record is great; it doubles down on all the things that Retaliation did so well – the aggression, the melody, the righteous anger – only this time there’s even more of it as 16 tracks stretch the runtime to a good 36-and-a-half minutes that still completely fly by. And, as much as its title might try to tell you otherwise, it’s loads of fun – the sonic equivalent of one of those classic nights down the pub, arms round your mates as you shout about how much you love them or how crap the government is or how much of a dick your boss is until you come away feeling just that little bit less miserable and alone.
If there is a degree of progression from one album to the next it’s that the band have amplified the hooks and melodies that already set them apart on Retaliation. The balance between big shouty sing-alongs and kick-your-head-in aggro feels more even on What A Fucking Nightmare, with anthemic singles like Cry Your Eyes Out and Those Days backed up by an abundance of similarly infectious album highlights like Living For Myself, Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet and What Do You Mean. Penultimate track Cuts Like A Knife might just take it furthest of all; it’s got about three consecutive hooks in it, not to mention the extra sparkle of keys which marks surely the closest this record comes to treading new ground for the band.
None of this makes What A Fucking Nightmare any less raging though. Vocalist Cal Graham does sometimes sing of camaraderie or solidarity or the good old days, but most of his lyrics are blunt and uncompromising tirades against the powers that be or social injustice or just plain “gobshites and over-opinionated knobheads” as he explains of lead single Fuck ‘Em. That track is suitably one of the fastest and most furious on the record, as are the likes of No Gimmicks and Evil By Evil, while others like Lying Little Rat (Propaganda) and Tomorrow prove just as potent as the tempo slows to something more menacing as opposed to outright blistering, as though the fists are clenched but not quite flying yet.
As hopefully made clear enough from the beginning, THE CHISEL were already great at what they do and they haven’t had to change much at all to make album number two as good as it is. What A Fucking Nightmare is as timeless as it is urgent, as catchy as it is raging, and ultimately another top drawer effort from the most exciting band in British punk at the moment.
Rating: 8/10
What A Fucking Nightmare is set for release on February 9th via Pure Noise Records.
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