Fuzz-embracing Philadelphian shoegazers Nothing have returned, just in time for the summer sunshine. “Zero Day,” their first new single since 2016, is a pitch-black four minutes of laconic nihilism, sung like a haunted lullaby by frontman Domenic Palermo. It does away with the fitfully immersive uplift of their last two LPs, Guilty of Everything and Tired of Tomorrow, and drives right at the darkness; it would be a black metal track if it had the energy. It pivots around Palermo singing, “Emotionless / Emotionless / Empire of rust.” Even the press release that accompanies the track opens by mentioning “self-loathing, self-destruction, and a general disdain for humanity.”
It’s the first single from the band’s third album, Dance on the Blacktop, out August 24 on Relapse. Produced by John Agnello (Dinosaur Jr, Sonic Youth, Kurt Vile, Kevin Devine), the album is openly a journey back into the sounds of the 1990s. Palermo was recently diagnosed with CTE (Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy), a trauma-induced neurodegenerative disease that’s usually in the news for its prevalence among former NFL players, and that has, apparently, influenced his lyrics. The band demoed the album inside Palermo’s tiny New York apartment over the space of three weeks, then recorded at Dreamland Studios in Woodstock, NY.
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Watch the video for “Zero Day” at the top of the page.
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