A lot can happen in 21 minutes. Your frozen pizza comes out of the oven, hot and crisp. Your favourite episode of The Simpsons delivers a burst of fun. Or you can let yourself be flattened by the fierce debut album from New York band YHWH Nailgun (pronounced Yahweh). Of the ten tracks, only one dares to stretch beyond three minutes – the rest tell their stories compactly but never simplistically. This is noise rock that flirts with industrial while remaining deeply rooted in math rock. You feel it especially in the drums: it’s never quite clear how many drummers are playing at once. A powerful whirlwind of guitars, screams, synths and drums emerges.
This contrast makes the album compelling. On one hand, it feels delicate – the production blows air between the instruments, creating space and making the whole structure seem almost fragile. On the other hand, 45 Pounds never lets up, crashing forward with full force and smashing everything in its path. Despite some questionable sample choices – »Animal Death Already Breathing« ends with the recorded final breaths of a dying animal – the band avoids cheap provocation or manufactured menace. Instead, the album comes across as a short, loud explosion: a storm that cannot be contained, with energy forced out of every speaker at full pressure.
45 Pounds
