NEQUIENT "Darker Than Death or Night"

By Dr. Abner Mality

NEQUIENT are as chaotic and violent as the city they call home, Chicago. The band falls under the "metallic hardcore" label, which covers an awful lot of ground. Well, so does NEQUIENT. On the first track "First Casualty", they start with what sounds like an all out death metal attack, switch to something like "happy" hardcore, toss in a PANTERA style groove and end with something still very heavy but almost progressive. All this in less than 3 minutes!

That's the way the whole album is...restlessly twitching and experimenting while keeping a very violent feel in their music. It's a lot to hang onto and pretty exhausting by album's end, but also kind of exhilarating. There's a feeling that you don't know where this is all going to wind up and that's not a bad thing. "Minotaur" begins with cacophony and chaos but morphs into a lumbering death-doom beast with growls to match. The drummer Chris Avgerin is a madman! His frantic beats help propel NEQUIENT over the cliff.

With "Wrongs", the noise rock influences become apparent...this thing starts with HARSH riffs and tones....and that aura continues with the mathcore madness of "City Killer", the almost delirious and cheerful "Bootlicker" and final cut "The Golden Age of the Grift", which can almost be called progressive hardcore, as much of an oxymoron as that term seems. "Darker Than Death Or Night" comes across as a metallic whirlpool that tosses you around like a ragdoll in a washing machine. Press play and hang on for dear life!

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NEQUIENT