aaamusic | On 26, May 2012

Nope are a noisy foursome from Leeds, featuring guitarist Andy Abbot of instrumental rockers That F**king Tank, and ‘Revision’ is there noise-rock debut release. Like That F**king Tank, Nope are a (predominantly) instrumental group – with their new six songs featuring an odd yet alluring amalgamation of noise-rock, heavy metal, garage punk and industrial.

Tracks like opener ‘Black Mask’ and the start of ‘Porous Spile’ feature melodic guitar lines and sounds that are almost pop-friendly, and certainly more accessible than those produced by most bands of this sort. Nope manage to incorporate an unusual amount of diversity into their heavy noise, and not just in the stop-start way that seems commonplace for experimental rock music. For example, the first half of ‘Todmorder’ is a beautifully light country-folk song, before the second half is distorted by slow, sludge metal guitar sounds.

Nope do the heavy well, which is extremely important for a Krautrock influenced noise band, with songs like The Skullbong and Pentrich Rising demonstrating their ear for distorted post-metal riffs and groove-orientated repetitive structures – sounding like a mixture of Isis and *shells, albeit not nearly as innovative as either of those big dogs. The closer ‘Crooked Staff’ is an 18+ minute epic of sludge-metal grooves and avant-garde noise, with snippets of experimental mathcore (such as the Dillinger Escape Plan-esque intro) and art-punk (towards the end) – an incredible, incredible close.

Fans of instrumental metal and noise rock should certainly check out Noise’s deep debut ‘Revision’, out June 1st through Obscene Baby Auction and The Audacious Art Experiment. A very promising new band.

★★★★★

Clive Rozario