NOFX: The Decline (HARDCORE): review / opinion to read on Music Waves

Punk, and particularly its hardcore offshoots, is a genre constantly decried, booed and despised by the rest of the rock community, who criticize them for vulgarly aligning stupid lyrics with primate music. Even within the punk community, NOFX are sometimes decried, booed and scorned for their fun attitude and potty jokes. 'No future' is a serious thing, so show some respect.

After a few albums that stumbled between 'unlistenable' and 'a little better', NOFX took all this on the wrong foot, releasing an EP in 1999 featuring a single eighteen-two-minute track: The Decline. The concept is simple. It describes the decline of humanity through the particular case of the USA, whose politics particularly revolted the members of the Californian band.

There's no question of stupid lyrics. The subject is treated with vehemence and passion, without nuance, but with great credibility. The passivity of the people who hide the problem and the hypocrisy of the government are the red threads of this bitter observation. The band doesn't just skim over the subject lightly. Their commitment against Bush (later) will prove just how much they care.

Easy music is out of the question too. The track is constructed, all breaks and riffs. Some of the rhythm changes after just a few bars, some of the breaks are hair-pinned, but it's all coherent, propelled by a common engine that is the frenzied energy of the whole. The track gets off to a fast start, with guitar rhythms reduced to a jerky roar. Little by little, it goes off in all directions, with breaks, sudden slowdowns and unexpected grooves. The lyrics scroll sadly amidst this deluge of fire, like a screamed incantation.

Then everything seems to stop. The guitars spit out a final distortion, leaving only a disquieting gimmick. Slowly, the song rises from the ashes. The singer begins by chanting hypnotic lyrics ("One more pill to kill the pain, one more pill to kill the pain, living throught conformity..."), exploding a few minutes later on a breathless finale that's impossible not to be swept away by.

Needless to say, with this EP, NOFX shatter most preconceptions about punk and offer us a major work, a sad vision of a suffocating society. At a time of modest pretense, here are twenty minutes of blood, sweat and tears. - Official website

NOFX

THE DECLINE

AUTOPRODUCTION

HARDCORE