News / / 08.09.14

Mob Rules

Nothing Left (Quality Control HQ)
18/20

It really is depressing, some of the utter, utter shit that people consider ‘decent’ modern hardcore. Trash Talk, we are peering squarely at you: bro-mosh for those who look to Noisey for actual music tips and think Metz are a ‘punk’ band for the ages but who’ve never bothered to listen to Void.

What you probably won’t, but should, be listening to is Mob Rules. Nothing Left is the much anticipated follow-up to 2011’s blistering The Donor, itself a classic of pessimistic, power violence-laced hardcore. Sonically, there’s still some of that here – Needles, Pricks and Goads for instance – but, generally, the nods to bands like Mind Eraser and Sex Vid have been sidelined for a sound more reminiscent of My War-era Black Flag – an easy reference, we admit – not least in the raw production. The Leeds-based group have explicitly cited both Flag and the recently reunited Bl’ast as key signifiers for the record, which is pretty spot on; Nothing Left comprises a heady mix of righteous power chord- driven riffage, narcotic sludge, discordant micro-leads and a blown-out, cricket-bat-to-the-head of a rhythm section, frontman Thomas Campbell roaring half incomprehensibly in the midst of it all. Top that off with some truly bleak lyrics and cover art, and you’ve got one hell of a punk record on your hands. Nothing Left, sits alongside recent releases from The Lowest Form, No and Perspex Flesh, as proof that the UK hardcore scene is in grimily good health.

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Words: Thomas Howells

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