Nightstick

Ultimatum

(c)(p)1998 Relapse Records

Review by Neil St.Laurent

Thanks to Relapse for the CD

The cover of this CD put a sense of fear in me before I could even get the CD into the stereo. The atrocious display of graphics and three guys with pig snouts just speaks "this music isn't any good". Cover art is usually chosen to provide some meaning, or graphical appeal, or something that may indicate something about the music, on all cases does the packagingfail for Nightstick "Ultimatum". Fortunately the music isn't as bad as the CD case.

Noise bands for the most part never seem to gain acceptance outside of fans of noise. Nightstick isn't a grinding assault, but it's disharmonic sound is certainly not what many people would call pleasant. "Ultimatum" unfortunately easily fits within the mold of what you'd come to expect from any other band in this genre; there is some originality but it isn't necessarily in the form of technical musicianship or emotion, thus not really adding to the music itself.

Basic song structure is a monotonous guitar riff with only the occasional interruption to an almost always higher pitch sound: the entire album sits on the high end. Excessive distortion keeps the hardness factor alive. Drumming style is an overuse of symbols with very simple beats. Combined with all of this is an almost token use of a bass to provide some stability to the melody. And on top of all of it are the shouting or screaming vocals. All of this is of course why it is called noise...

As stated before, fans of the genre will be interested, those that dislike the genre will only solidify their reasons why. Nightstick is an average band with little to offer in musical uniqueness.

Nightstick is:
Alex Smith - Bass, Vocals, Violin
Cotie Cowgill - Guitars
Robert Williams - Drums, Backing Vocals, Tapes
Padoinka the Clown - Interpretive Dance

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