Here’s one from my personal inbox that I felt like I needed to share. Architects and The Ghost Inside are perfect examples of music I wanna listen to when I’m not feeling super grindy but can’t chill out to anything not heavy but, as is the case, those are really the two biggest names that I can digest. Their particular genres are chock full of diet versions that emulate rather than innovate but now and again one will pop up and party mosh. Nasty Toaster are another pretty solid example of this, despite their ludicrous name.
Hailing from Rouen in the Upper Normandy region of France (thanks Wikipedia), this group of Francofreaks lay fat riffs over vocals and percussion that could easily be lifted from Hollow Crown, still my favourite Architects album and a stellar benchmark to rock against. The riffs are techy enough to stay interesting and some of the beatdowns reek of the kind of swagger that Stray From The Path are so adept at stamping over their own heavy hitting sections. Unfortunately, I don’t speak French so I have no idea what their bio says but from the strength of their material and their four year existence I can truthfully say that these guys have nailed down the modern hardcore sound. There’s no two stepping here though, just a particularly beefy blend of thick guitars and arcing crescendos. Toss in a spoon of Deftones in this broth and you get left with a perfectly seasoned broth of dissonant guitars and big booming breakdowns. I find myself constantly calling back to Danza but is that a bad thing? Nah, it’s not. Shh.
Nasty Toaster and their self titled EP can be found and grabbed for free at their Bandcamp page. If you need a dose of gritty, unpolished modern hardcore then book a flight to the north of France and visit this lot. Or just check ’em out online and save yourself the trip. Either way, this band are tight and you should be listening to them. If they weren’t good enough then I wouldn’t be telling you about them right now. Duh.
-MM