Now marking their 21st year as a band, Texan rockers Nothing More come of age in style with their seventh album, Carnal. Bringing all their experience to bear, this record takes all that was good about their previous releases and pulls it all together into a finely honed laser beam. This is a tough, muscular affair that marks the band as a contemporary force whist retaining all that was good about their past and the result is a record that flows like an old school album whilst bristling with youthful energy and evidences a band at the peak of their powers.

We are no strangers to Nothing More here at The Midlands Rocks having caught them on their recent jaunt across the UK (reviewed here), and can testify what a force of nature the band are in the live environment. However, that energy is not an easy thing to carry over into the studio and capture on tape. Thankfully, with producer WZRD BLD at the helm and Zakk Cervini handling the mastering the band have a tag team who can bottle their energy and they sprinkle their magic all over this recording. However, it’s not just the band’s vitality that needs capturing, but their invention too, and the pair earn their stripes on opening, and title, cut ‘|Carnal|’. It perfectly encapsulates the band’ modus operandi; the battle between the cerebral and the visceral, and it is a war that will rage throughout the album. The sound of two heavyweight boxers slugging it out, the following ‘House Of Sound’ (featuring a guest spot from I, Prevail’s Eric V), is probably one of the heaviest songs you’ll hear all year, yet there’s a soul searching, questioning nature to this cut which suggests a vulnerable quality that is at odds with the music. It’s a push and pull that will echo throughout the album, and with WZRD’s huge production on tracks like ‘Freefall’ that lose the listener in a gaping chasm. It’s a mix that makes the listener feel infinitesimal, and in contrast to the vast sound creates another tension of opposites and all these contrasts will reflect over the course of 15 tracks, each acting as a foil to highlight the other.

It is perfectly feasible to dip in and out of this album (and cuts such as ‘Blame It On The Drugs’ have chart bothering potential) but, like an old school long player, it is best consumed in one sitting. The lyrical themes stitching the album together give the record a concept feel as it wends its way towards a thoughtful conclusion in ‘|Sound|’, and one that brings the album full circle and the bombastic silence that follows demands you hit ‘play’ immediately.

A career-defining album from a band at the top of their game, and one which suggests there’s much more to come.

• Carnal is released via Better Noise Music on 28th June 2024.
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Track List:

1. |Carnal|
2. House Of Sand
3. If It Doesn’t Hurt
4. Angel Song
5. Freefall
6. Blame It On The Drugs
7. |Head|
8. Existential Dread
9. |Heart|
10. Down The River
11. Give It Time
12. |Sight|
13. Stuck
14. Run For Your Life
15. |Sound|