Phoenix, Arizona’s NONPAREIL have announced the April 8th release of debut EP Allergen. Stream “No Elbows,” from Allergen, via New Noise Magazine, and below. NONPAREIL is fronted by Connor Woods, the original vocalist of long-running metal machine ABIGAIL WILLIAMS. Between Woods and the other three members of NONPAREIL– guitarist Darren Simoes, bassist John Brandon, and drummer Jef Wright – their long, eclectic list of former bands reads like a cross-section of the heavy music scene of the early 2000s: ABIGAIL WILLIAMS, metalcore standouts THE BLED, post-punkers DEATH OF MARAT, noise-rockers BLUES,
On six-song debut Allergen, the nascent Nonpareil layers ironclad, bottom-heavy noise-rock with desperate, chaotic yearnings of post-hardcore – as if the muscle-bound body of Shellac were topped by a wild-eyed Gravity Records head. On songs like “Blood Cockles and Gutter Oil”, “No Elbows” and “Yuan Xing Jianyu,” Nonpareil’s rhythm section drives forward with unwavering, rock-solid intent, while its guitarist paints in bright colors and its frontman teeters on the edge of a cliff. It is the internal tension between these elements – control and the loss of control – that makes Allergen a thrilling listen, rattling the nerves like a punker Botch or a more focused Hot Cross.
Lyrically, Woods was inspired entirely by a year spent traveling, teaching English, and coaching basketball, in China. He states: “I wrote the lyrics while experiencing first hand the plight of a Third World country only now in the midst of its own Industrial Revolution. Themes of alienation, isolation and an aversion to the misguidedness of human progress permeate every moment of the band’s music. Allergen is as much a cry for help and awareness amidst a fog of confusion and disharmony as it is a 20-minute slab of plodding, introspective rock n’ roll.”
An exciting debut from four newly united veterans of the scene, Allergen was tracked at 513 Analog in Tempe, Arizona by Ryan Breen, and was mastered by Jordon Zadorozny. (Guitarist Aaron Burke and drummer Fred Johnson, both of the band Minibosses, performed on Allergen and have since been replaced by Simoes and Wright.)
Guitarist Darren Simoes executed the layout and design, using photos by Andrew Weiss (Pelican, North).
The tracklist is as follows:
1) Blood Cockles and Gutter Oil
2) Devout Poverty
3) Allergen
4) No Elbows
5) Yuan Xing Jianyu
6) Yellowed Pillow
Tour Dates:
Mar 17 – Mesa, AZ @ The Nile Theatre w/ Intronaut, The Ocean, North
Apr 9 – Flagstaff, AZ @ The Green Room w/ Sorxe, Fat Figs
