Antagonist A.D. is a five-piece hardcore band from Auckland, New Zealand, so I guess you could almost classify them as another spectacular band from Down Under. Nothing From No One is their third full-length album, but first released by Mediaskare Records. On this album, they speak of the cancerous nature of western culture, the infectiousness of apathy, and the exploitation of animals across the world. As you could imagine from the last bit, they are a vegan hardcore band-not that that should deter you from listening.
Nothing From No One opens with a track that is primarily instrumental with a lengthy soundclip. At one point the narrator says “That’s a growth. It’s cancer. It’s big and it’s brown, and smoke is coming out of it”, but this album is like cancer in no way. Nothing From No One is the album that Your Demise should have released instead of the very forgettable The Golden Age. It’s very easy to make this connection between the two bands because the vocals are eerily similar as are most of the riffs. Really, the only differences between The Golden Age and Nothing From No One are that Antagonist A.D. released a hardcore album with no cheesy singing while Your Demise used way too much, and Nothing From No One is much heavier.
To me, the drumming on the entire album was pretty impressive. There were a lot of good drum patterns and it was very fast paced. On the other hand, there are very few melodic parts played by the guitarists, but you shouldn’t even be looking for or expecting loads of technicality from a hardcore band, so that is a minor flaw in my eyes (ears, rather). What you can expect is one of the heaviest and most mosh-able hardcore albums of the year with a plethora of extremely heavy breakdowns and circle pit-type sections.One of my favourite parts of the album lies in the American Psycho soundclips that can be heard on several tracks (“I’m Just Not There”, “Nothing From No One”, “Paul Allen”, and “This Confession Has Meant…”). American Psycho is one of my favourite crime films, so I think it’s pretty cool to hear soundclips of it that fit quite nicely into a hardcore album.
Despite the fact that most of the songs sounded pretty similar, Nothing From No One had my full attention from start to finish and it was a very fun listen. My favourite tracks were “Violence”, “Nothing From No One”, “Paul Allen”, and “Epsom”, and if you’re looking for a few tracks to listen to as a test drive, I recommend those.
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