Sydney, Australia’s Shady Nasty are noisy as hell and that’s a very good thing. For a three-piece they sound more like a small army of shrieking phantoms soundtracked by war drums and tortured six strings. Singer/guitarist Kevin Stathis condemns and seethes more than he sings. His jagged riffs are matched only by his jagged vocals. The stage is his pulpit and we the listeners are his witnesses. Anger can be a scary thing, but it can also be cathartic. Stathis, along with Haydn Green(bass) and Luca Watson(drums), make music that’s cathartic, unrelenting, and also oddly uplifting.
On the band’s debut EP with Royal Mountain Records titled Bad Posture, Shady Nasty tear through four tracks of noise and bliss. A throaty cry of post-punk, art rock, and slow churn harcore, Bad Posture will have you hitting repeat again and again.
“Jewellery” is the first track that hits your ears and it’s reminiscent of Iceage in its dissonant noise and militant march rhythm. Stathis’ vocal delivery is as much that of a poet as a singer. It’s like King Krule fronting Protomartyr covering The Fall. Intense stuff. “Get Buff” moves past the in-your-face aggression for some serious earnest songwriting(not that the louder stuff isn’t earnest.) The vocals are more prominent, giving the track something of an early 80s alternative vibe.
The whole of Bad Posture brings to mind both late 70s post-punk and art rock, as well as early 90s bands like Polvo, Archers of Loaf, and Shellac. Something like “AA” has that Steve Albini sound. Loud, brash, and ear-splitting aggression. It’s raw and real. A direct line to modern bands like METZ and Preoccupations.
All of that aggression makes final track “77Sunk” stand out so much more. There are shades of shoegaze and dream pop in “77Sunk” that show a completely different side to Shady Nasty that we haven’t heard up to this point. It’s an exciting twist to this already intense EP.
Bad Posture never relents and is an engaging listen at every turn. Dark, heavy, and in-your-face.
7.8 out of 10
Bad Posture is available now via Royal Mountain Records. Buy it here.
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