EP REVIEW: new skin – Graphic Nature

Stemming from the need to express his innermost thoughts, Harvey Freeman, GRAPHIC NATURE’s restless vocalist basks in the uncomfortable and wants you to join him. Hailing from Kent, Freeman makes up one part of the metal quintet GRAPHIC NATURE, and their latest EP new skin is a feverish, trenchant window into his darkest frustrations.

Pairing the fervour and urgency of STRUCTURES with the vitriolic throbbing breakdowns of ALPHA WOLF, GRAPHIC NATURE aren’t delicately balancing nu-metal and deathcore, instead, they are colliding them together at a terminal velocity, producing a contorted, screaming byproduct.

Freeman has stated he wrote the songs for new skin in the solace and cover of nightfall, often when he couldn’t sleep. This is exemplified on drain, where he delivers the harrowing line “Save me from the nightmare I’m in” with such acute malice and dignified exhaustion that it makes even your goosebumps retract in empathy. The maximalist production of George Lever (PALM READER, LOATHE) lends itself to GRAPHIC NATURE’s discordant sound, layering bass booms with hurried feedback and painting a portrait of a band on the brink of chaos.

Commencing the EP with chokehold, the band swell into an Iowa-era industrial introduction that builds into a surprisingly dynamic beast throughout the track. It tunes into Freeman’s gripes with his psyche, with lines like “you said so many times that you understand, but I know that you’re lying because you’re me” allowing us to gain a cursory glimpse into the battling duality of his mind. The throbbing drain follows with its tempo-shifting coda leading into the industrial 601, which relies on harsh textures to deliver its brute force, and sees harmonics used to parallel the down-tuned guitar assault.

new skin taps into GRAPHIC NATURE’s nu-metal roots, but deftly pairs it with a newfound pace and hardcore-influenced verse drumming, before channelling KNOCKED LOOSE in a brooding break that relies on the necessary tension building earlier in the song to achieve its full caustic impact. GRAPHIC NATURE seem to be aware their sound is suited to the usual punk (or pop) sub-three minute timestamp, however, this isn’t to optimise digestibility, but is the only foreseeable way to carry and maintain such intensity in their music. Simply, a full album could lose the momentum and take away from the overall chokehold that GRAPHIC NATURE holds on their listener. At this stage in their career, this EP is the absolute best decision they could’ve made: no filler, and teeming with an energy that can only be likened to the feeling of when LOATHE appeared in the UK scene.

When viewed as a whole, the EP feels like a runaway 18-wheeler in deep, rural Arizona. Constantly brushing with imminent disaster after the brakes have failed, it rolls entirely out of control in a vacuous expanse with zero promise of help. GRAPHIC NATURE are pushing the boundaries of modern metal, taking notes from both the gatekeepers and new blood to produce a curdling, hyperbolic sound that breathes, stretches and oozes as if it were alive.

Rating: 9/10

new skin is out now via Rude Records.

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