:: The Nation Blue - Damnation

The Nation Blue

Melbourne based trio, The Nation Blue, has been terrorising audiences for some years now, and on this, their second outing after 2001‘s debut Blueprint For Modern Noise, they prove themselves to be a far more than just mindless full-throttle noiseniks. The exhilarating racket they create is quite their own, although for the uninitiated, imagine stumbling down an old Melbourne back alley at midnight and becoming embroiled in a punch up between At The Drive In and McLusky. This is, however, oversimplifying a multi-textured record. There is plenty of ferocity here; tracks such as 'Devil's Interval’ and the punk sea-shanty of ‘To Return To The Sea’ attack the listener with bludgeoning riffs and vocals that suggest paint stripper is the singer‘s tipple of choice. Yet, hidden within even the most abrasive tracks, there are restrained moments of beguiling melody. Occasionally this comes to the fore, such as on the heart-wrenching 'Solar/Sonar’, which starts off sounding, oddly enough, akin to the bluesy melancholy of Spain. The whispered vocals courtesy of Scott McCloud (Girls Against Boys) paired with clean, emotive guitar builds, with the help of Linda J (Little Ugly Girls) and the Brunswick Community Choir, into a poignant dual perspective of a relationship's end. The often-abrasive nature of the music belies a lyrical thoughtfulness, musing on love, escape, small town boredom, and life on the road. This is hardcore, but progressive and inquisitive, paying no heed to the genre's constraints. They deserve to go far.