You’re Nothing

Ask anyone what cities they believe to be the musical capitals of the world and they’d undoubtedly start rolling off names like London, New York, Austin, and Melbourne. But here’s a new one for you, Copenhagen.

Queue Iceage. These young Danish punks stormed onto the scene back in 2011 with their debut release New Brigade. The foursome’s chaotic first album was widely praised and highly celebrated – a raucous, capricious, and abrasive album that was heaped with a myriad of tags from post-punk to hardcore.

But essentially what it was, and what Iceage personify, is pure punk. Clocking in at 12 tracks at a power-packed 29 minutes, You’re Nothing retains the angst and ferocity of its predecessor but able to deliver their latest set as a structured and refined sort of chaos that’s more aware of its own emotional condition.

Pure anarchy is replaced with constructive and applied songwriting that gives the record a stronger sense of cohesion and direction than New Brigade.

Don’t think that this takes anything away from the power of Iceage’s music though. Desperation, the interrogation of societal pressure, and the anxious observations made through singer Elias Bender Rønnenfelt’s lyrics are backed up by bursts of straight-out hardcore, ripping guitar lines.

Opening track ‘Ecstasy’ has the frontman brutally spitting out “Pressure! pressure! Oh god no” over the trudging of three instruments behind him.

There’s heart to the album too, brought on by a profound sense of command, managing to formatively drive their newfound understanding of their own emotional states and channel it into You’re Nothing.

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