“Truncheons won’t stop people from healing.”
For many bands, the lapse in time that was the global pandemic, challenged many of them to breaking points financially, emotionally and existentially. Nervus had the burden of confronting all three, however on the way it set them free from the constraints they had felt previously a a punk band. With their fourth record, The Evil Ones, Nervus return with an assertive political message that takes aim at colonialism, the rentier economy and individualism. With this comes the bold move of going full DIY, that gives the message they are delivering an authenticity that their backing is devoid of corporate funding.
There is a distinctness to The Evil Ones off the bat, with its opening melody and gang melody quickly pulling you into the record on “Iconoclast“. The way the drums dance around the ear on the fill and the general production on the drums across the record are a personal highlight. There are no attempts to divert from the message that Nervus are striking at, that everything, to be blunt, is a bit fucked. In this track also contains some of the records best lyricism, “truncheons won’t stop people from healing, boots can’t stamp out what we’re all feeling“. It feels like the sort of track you could hear blasting out of a speaker at future marches and protests to come.
Later track “Rotting Mass” takes up the front against colonialism and imperialism, something that should be touched on by more bands. There is a potency to the lyricism of “there grow no flowers on concrete graves“, however being contained in the bridge it potentially doesn’t strike as forcefully as it could be. With this is track and many such as “Dropout” and “Jellyfish“, Nervus show they are more than capable of writing catchy hooks and melodies while giving them character with jangle elements on the latter.
Track “I Wish I Was Dead” plays reference to a Stewart Lee routine discussing the upsides of being a dead comedian, as you have to write no further material to continue building and maintaining your career. It’s stripped back to acoustic guitar and vocals, however it does feel like it’s the record’s major misstep. There is an attempt here to comment on the idea of individualism, yet it comes across as if the track is a verse away from referencing a Tom Usher tweet. Adding to this is a track such as “Rental Song“, lamenting the renter economy, something that affects vast swathes of the younger economy. Yet it fails strike to strike a blow by offering up very little other lyrically and insightfully other than that what we already know, that rent is bad. When it comes to landlords a track going for the jugular would be more fitting of the current situation.
Exiting the The Evil Ones it’s difficult not to feel torn. While there is some excellent lyricism here that are worth revisiting, it all feels like a puzzle that has yet to be fully put together. The feeling is there on a lot of tracks but the articulation at times doesn’t quite match, which leaves it sounding like something you’d hear in a pub in Dalston. With what follows up, hopefully Nervus can tap into the raw and real emotion that is present across that record and produce something that can stand as a beacon for a country with no future.
7/10
The Evil One is out this Friday via Get Better Records.