Have you ever had your face punched in by an album? ‘Cause that’s exactly what the fuck happened with the newest WEEKEND NACHOS release, Apology (May 20, Relapse Records). When they announced that they were putting their own nail in their coffin with this one, something called me to be a part of it…to hear their swan song for myself. Bands break up all the time, so why is this any different? Why do I want to inspect this particular final bow so carefully? Honestly, I don’t know, but I think it may have something to do with the attitude they convey. This album has THAT thing going on in it. Whether listening from a mix engineer standpoint, to the aesthetic of the broken bones on the album’s cover, to a casual music listener standpoint, this record is practically bursting at the seams with AUTHENTIC feeling and ferocity.
Are the vocals polished and prominent? No. Are the guitars the latest and greatest digital tone edited tightly? Nope. Bass teeming with synthesized sub effects? Nu-uh. Drums sampled and overloaded with insane amounts of processing? Not at all. Thank fuck for that too. This collection of music stands entirely on it’s own without all the caveats and standard stereotypes associated with modern heavy music. Most of the songs are quite short, but that’s because they don’t need to say anything else; they put their fucking cards on the table, and back them up with unsettling amounts of gain, barked out pissed off lyrics, and breakdowns/blast beats that could make you crowd kill in a nursing home.
I was going to sit here and almost write a track by track playbook of the album, but to be fair, I think you’re better off hearing it for yourself. It’s not a terribly long release (38 minutes total) and there’s so much going on that it’s honestly hard to put it all into words. WEEKEND NACHOS has done that one thing so many bands try, and fail miserably at. They manage to marry hardcore, blast beats, breakdowns, and some doom metal parts, and not have it sound like a jumbled mess of shit. Each song is coherent, but they all seem to contain these elements effectively, and efficiently. It’s important to listen from the very start to the very end, because it feels like a live set being performed right there on your fucking iPod.
I don’t know how they did it, but they’ve somehow captured the magic of live intensity on a collection of .mp3’s, and that’s nothing short of amazing in this genre. While I’m not planning on being too specific, I do want to point out that closer and title track “Apology” almost sounds exactly like what the name implies. I’m not entirely certain about what they’re trying to apologize for. Maybe they’re saying, “Sorry we’re not making music anymore”, maybe it’s, “Sorry we hate each other”, but all I know is, you feel what they’re saying in your gut. It’s almost like whatever they’re trying to convey comes out as what you’re trying to apologize for in your own life, and that’s a beautiful experience to have from a collection of songs.
They didn’t have to release anything, and they certainly didn’t have to write anyone an apology in my opinion, but I hope that whatever they were addressing, they make peace with it. Even if the apology is meant to be toward each other. Any album that causes introspection on a level that brings up true feeling, and an uneasiness about choices you have made, causing self-reflection and deep thought, is something that should be analyzed, and listened to over and over and over again. Sure, there are songs on here about murder, political overthrow, and friends talking shit behind your back, but it’s all of these elements, and the overarching melancholy, that push your emotions in a deeper direction that normal…Au revoir WEEKEND NACHOS. Apology accepted.
STANDOUT TRACKS: “Apology”, “POW MIA”, “Fake Political Song”
RATING: 9/10
-ZALEN CIGAINERO
