Nasti: People Problem 12"

Nasti, the people’s favorite, is back with their third album of misanthropic hardcore punk. Sure to delight the senses of the senseless with thudding violence and irritated vitriol. It is the band’s opinion that humans are mostly garbage and this record reflects that sentiment wholeheartedly. “People Problem” is musical equivalent of Jack Nicholson in The Shining methodically/maniacally typing: I don’t like you. I don’t like you. I don’t like you. I don’t like you. I don’t like you. I don’t like you. I don’t like you. I don’t like you. I don’t like you. I don’t like you. I don’t like you. I don’t like you. I don’t like you. I don’t like you. I don’t like you. I don’t like you. I don’t like you. I don’t like you. I don’t like you. I don’t like you. I don’t like you. I don’t like you…

Our take: People Problem is the third 12” vinyl from this Seattle hardcore band. Jensen from Iron Lung (the label and the band) is in the group, which makes sense because Nasti sounds to me like the quintessential Iron Lung Records band. Their sound is dark and desperate, their music uniformly heavy and intense, but also adventurous. There are parts that remind me of Gag’s elastic pogo, Reek Minds’ crossover riff-fests, and Brain Tourniquet’s pulverizing bottom end. But they have their own moves too, like how, through all these tempos and rhythms, the guitarist deploys these broad melodic flourishes that remind me of 90s alternative rock (check that almost pop-punkish lead in the otherwise bleak “Ruin Everything”). And then, as if Nasti’s sound wasn’t already unique enough, when they drop into the five-minute closing dirge “White Fences II,” they augment the sound with sampled percussion, bringing an alien set of textures to this well-worn hardcore trope. Needless to say, if you’re a fan of the arty, forward-thinking hardcore Iron Lung specializes in, Nasti will be right up your alley.