Danish Rockers Nexo Blast Society's Acceptance of Its Own Demise with New Album False Flag
4.5 out of 5 stars
Nexo is not a band I was familiar with until they reached out to see if we could give their album a listen, but I am glad they did. I am also glad I took the time to give their new album False Flag a shot.
Typically, I have apprehension around aggro-punk type music, but mostly just because I have no idea what the songs are about, and it takes too much effort to clearly figure out what the songs are trying to say.
That’s not the case with Nexo though. This album rips fast and hard, sure. But it also has VERY clear messages about anti-corruption, anti-fascism, anti-authoritarianism, anti-”woke culture” and more.
If that makes you think, “Oh great, another self-righteous, left-leaning, holier than thou message,” I would say you are wrong there.
I will use the song “White Lies” as an example to counter that argument. In this song, the band focuses on how even THEY are complicit in exacerbating a world based on exploitation whether they like it or not.
As the band says in a statement about the song, “Deep down we’re aware that we are part of the problem, and when the guilt is too heavy, we resort to escapism. We grab our phone made of minerals mined by Congolese children and text a dealer who arrives in a petrol guzzling Mercedes, selling us a bag of cocaine with a trail of blood so long that you can see it from space.”
So, you can see that these are not just one-sided songs.
Their lead single “Truthicide” (“truth aside” as it says later too) is a song about how facts are becoming less and less a part of reality, and that should be a scary thought. I couldn’t agree more, and the lyrics are well thought out and succinctly poetic.
It is basically put in as a musical interjection - full with broken tones and skips - to give the full idea that things are not working like they should. Pretty damn clever.
The last song on the album “The Kids Are Not Alright” leads off with lyrics from The Beatles’ song “Help” and becomes its own thing based off the classic song’s much more innocent tone. It is a great juxtaposition between what “help” looked like in the 1950’s and what is required to help people in modern times.
I highly recommend checking out these guys and their new album False Flag which drops on April 15th via Kink Records in Germany, TNS Records in the UK and 5FeetUnder in Denmark. You can listen on Bandcamp by clicking this link as well.
Feel free to check out their first album New Normal as well. It’s less aggressive and intense, but still great. It’s a bit like Sex Pistols meets Arctic Monkeys. Pretty cool stuff - especially considering they recorded it “in a shed” as they mention.