Nothing,Nowhere resurrects nu-metal with VOID ETERNAL's untethered rage

The genre, for all of its furrowed-brow seriousness from the likes of Linkin Park, to the ridiculousness of Limp Bizkit – in an attempt to briefly reduce the early millennium carnage to two bands – was for some a blot on the early 00s musical landscape.

Offering not much more than loud choruses and rabidly cussed out raps, it’s plain to see why it became such a whipping boy as time progressed into Strokes’ mugging, soft-hearts sobbing, and everyone else taking themselves even more seriously than cries of “crawling in my skin, these wounds they will not heal”. But for some, these sounds were formative. They opened ways of dealing with the world, and this was the case for one nothing,nowhere.

When he was younger, Joe Mulherin, the mastermind behind the once-mysterious Soundcloud rap moniker, cut his teeth in hardcore bands. He relished in the industrial abrasion of early 00s touchstones, but for the most part, this link was missing in the chains that wrapped around nothing,nowhere – until now.

VOID ETERNAL is an album that unashamedly, and often beautifully, resurrects the carnage. Unleashing nu-metal on the world with a frenzy worthy of tranquillisation, its untethered rage knows no bounds.

"ANX1ETY" erupts to life, setting the scene for this breakneck cruise through all that was good and holy about alt-music's much-laughed-at cousin. Every track plays into the ballpark of the emo mindset, but instead of wallowing beneath barren beats and sprawling guitar lines such as the Soundcloud rap generation were wont to do, it embraces these feelings. It unleashes devastating screams to deal with the pain.

More brilliantly, "THIRST4VIOLENCE" flips the modern humble narrative most try to spin, on its head. The verses ride a low-end beat where Mulherin muses on his journey before a vein-bursting shriek of "FUCK IT I AIN'T GOING BACK" embraces the hubris.

Not content with fuelling this fire with his own deep-set respect and unharnessed angst he’s also brought a mixtape-worthy list of collaborators along for the ride. From Fall Out Boy’s Pete Wentz who digs deep for his own blood-curdling screams reminiscent of his early years, to later-generation groups such as Underoath ("VEN0M"), and newcomers Static Dress ("F0RTUNE_TELLER"), it's a sprawl that creates new tinges removing the potential for similarity to play out given the two-dimensions that wound up being nu-metal's pitfall.

Indeed, if any genre were to fall into the Marmite category, nu-metal would be directly in the burning pit of hate for most. But with the due care and attention Mulherin pays to it, and with his rap credentials slotting in naturally alongside the brutality of dick-swinging rock like the pointed upper and lower teeth of an apex predator, VOID ETERNAL is a rebirth that doesn't feel like flogging a dead horse. Instead, he's created a homage that excavates the DNA and conjures something akin to Frankenstein's monster, just if carnage was the end goal.