NASUM - Shift
December 6, 2004, 20 years ago
(Relapse)
Nasum is back with a second album that marks the we're-not-so-grindcore phase in its career, but in total this is record number four for the Swedes. Though Nasum has indeed toned down its visceral absurdity, Shift is still aeons away from what normal people call listenable or pleasantly supportive of a fulfilled life. No matter, as underground dwellers and more adventurous types in the mainstream hard music scene are going to go absolutely nuts when they hear what Nasum's impacted onto disc, Shift being a record that should help the band break through to the five figure sales mark in the US. Nasum still retains its trademark hyper-speed/hyper-blast combination but, like on '03's Helvete, incorporates some absolutely sick groove into the proceedings, making this record brutal, inspiring, fun (!), effusive and, yup, still really honest. A must for those infatuated with speed and fastfastfast groove - Shift has all the subtlety of cheap street crank.
