Kidnapped – Nowhere is Sterile – 2021 – 71/100 [Powerviolence]

Published by Unclevanja on September 17, 2021September 17, 2021

KIDNAPPED – NOWHERE IS STERILE

Self-released, 2021

Rating: 71/100

Best Song: Circling The Drain

Kidnapped are four boys from Connecticut, pissed off like few others. Nothing new, maybe it’s not the most common thing but anger in music has existed for at least half a century, in rock. And even Beethoven, just saying, was not always joyful in his writing.

Fury, however, expressed in music in an appreciable way. A punch in the face, that’s it. Feeling typical of hardcore punk which also is not a brand new genre, being forty years old and more.

As always, however, it is a question of quality, and there is a lot of it here. The precise choice of swinging in timing, in songs that sometimes do not exceed one minute, requires considerable skill. Or rather, if you are not capable, you do not get out of it artistically alive.

All songs shouted in the eardrums of those who listen to them, melody is deliberately left in the cellar. You go from very syncopated grindcore rhythms to more evocative almost sludge riffs, in a few moments. The wisdom that emerges lies in the ability to pinch the state of tension of the created situation and direct it on command. This is the quality, knowing how to create a mood by managing its development.

They call it powerviolence, the sub-subgenre. Bastard son of grindcore and hardcore, therefore grandson of grandfathers metal and punk, and a thousand other lovers in between, surely. It has also existed for more than 30 years, starting over with  Infest. But at the time they called it thrashcore and in the end it remained almost in hiding for most of the 90s, re-emerging with vigor only towards the end of the millennium. Crossed Out, No Comment, Orchid, Nails, among the (or my) best of the genre.

How to define Kidnapped? Brutally intricate. Aggressive as needed. Heavy, no doubt. Loud and noisy. But also epic and very intense. Circling the Drain a jewel, satisfying drums and structure that exemplifies the entire work. Ten songs made for when you need a dose of adrenaline shot right in the brain. A disc that lasts 10 minutes and a little more, because this is it. But anyone who has loved Dead Kennedys, Hüsker Dü, Refused, Bad Brains, Pig Destroyer, Terrorizer etc, knows, and doesn’t need to understand why.

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