Deez Nuts. Yeah, you clicked this; the band name is as bad as you first thought. But that doesn’t halt the fact that this Australian unit seriously know how to write Hardcore tunes. They’ve got the crushing riffs in absolute abundance, right from the word go, but they’ve got that ridiculously over the top macho punk bullshit needed to spit the right kind of attitude onto heavy music. This is Hardcore of the Madball and Biohazard kind of spirit, not the modern beat-down obsessed version.
Not everyone can get on with Hardcore music, and many struggle to see beyond the overbearing macho facade so many in the scene focus on, but with Word Is Bond (Century Media), Deez Nuts could very well attract a whole breed of new fans into the genre. The slow chugging riffs which run their course throughout the album just generally makes this an easy album to pick up and go with. Again, much like Biohazard, they’re also clearly more than capable of throwing themselves into a thrashier style of Punk, which will again prove attractive to die-hards within the scene already.
The song structure across the album is relatively consistent. We don’t have all that many tracks which exceed even the two minute mark, so once again you’ll be able to throw this record on and blitz through it in no time. As you give this repeat listens it also becomes clear that a lot of these tracks were written with the live performance in mind – we’ve got it all; the chant along lyrics in tracks like ‘Wrong Things Right’ and ‘Chess Boxin’’, the bouncy riffs via ‘What’s Good’ and all the chaos to fill the pits through ‘Pour Up’ and the title track.
Honestly, most of this album will likely become quite forgettable as time goes by, but live the tracks have real potential to come alive. ‘Forgettable’ may seem like a strong term, but unless you become an absolute die-hard, you’ll probably give this a couple of spins and put it aside. It’s not a world beater, not a game changer for the genre, but it is a more than welcome addition to the Hardcore Punk scene.
7.0/10
TOM DONNO