If I am stronger than my will then there will be two blogs tonight. Fucking dammit there will be! Fuck you (thank you). Send music shit to [ fosterhildingmusic@gmail.com ] or DM me on Instagram.
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| photos courtesy of Exposed Nerves. |
Oh boy have I been waiting on this one for a while... Exposed Nerves is a delicately composed, thrashing ridiculous supergroup from San Diego and beyond. Terribly cool, terribly fast, and unapologetically goofy and absurd--they rule ever so hard. I was originally gonna write about their self titled album, but I will be frank with you all: I am currently hanging on by a thread. So, I'm taking the easy road for a moment and choosing instead to review Exposed Nerves' side of a much shorter split with renowned Orange County legends, Bruce Lee, which was released a little over a month ago. I apologize and I'm working on it. Love you all! Keep reading and sharing or sending me stuffs, it means a lot...
Instigate starts as unassumingly as possible, just waves of distorted noises and far away voices like passengers on the other side of a train window as it toots along. Tanner's voice here is fucking aching. This is unlike any "grind," or whatever bullshit you wanna call it, I've ever heard. It's tangible, shooting off spazzed ideas like a group project via sidewalk chalk. Riley shines insanely well on drums, having seen him only on guitar for most projects, and fucking Isaac and Damian's guitar parts are unnecessarily heavy. We only grow more distorted and noisy, a split second blast beat holding us down to our very last breath.
Decimator is like some Mr. Bungle funk hardcore fuck-off. It's jolting rhythm captained by Justin's cracking and precise bass and Riley's constant switching thuds is as impressive as it is menacing and intimidating. This might be my favorite from this EP, the split second arpeggiated panic chords sitting like a crack in your windshield between chugs and Tanner's unintelligible cries. Then we get that mincy-ass shit. Killer.
Archimedes starts with Hitchcock and an array of sparkling, jazzy, math rock, tapping porn that ascends and descends out of flux like some sonic helix of obscured purpose. What the fuck? All of this is reflected in its opposite as the next part crashes into heavenly doom and then into quick beatings, and then again into more and more. They only stay where they want to be for as long as they want to--these fickle geniuses, they. This split second pre-outro is so weird, too. It rules.
Rooted drops the pace, Taco Bell discussions and shattering, ironic noise ensues. Can I just take a moment to talk about how cool and inventive Isaac and Damian's guitars sound here? They don't go the normal route for the genre they're in. They take it opposite with these bright, shiny (if still cracking at the seams) smatterings of stabbing chords and riffs rather than nothing-but-and-always low chugs. The production on Tanner's vocals make it sound like he's calling out from hell. These little hammer-on phrases we get are so out of place that they are actually fucking perfect. I'm all here for these breakdown 808s, too...
Nonagon is long enough to be three Exposed Nerves songs in one. Incalculable chugs line our horizon before the light of an all-destroying sun comes to drag us into the day unwilling and unwanted. Between splintering blast beats, Justin drives us down a path of wavering chugs in hopes of protecting us from what is to come. But, we must come to terms with the fact that there is no salvation except in fleeting moments of clarity and peace. Even these, though, like the scattered oasis that finishes us off, is tainted by the forever-looming promise of chaos. Of the future of Exposed Nerves.
Yeah. Incredible stuff. I don't really have much to say except listen. They deserve the hype, and so so so much more. Wow. I'll have to check out Bruce Lee's side... Maybe a blog for another day.
9/10
Stream SPLIT w/ BRUCELEE.
-Foster
See Exposed Nerves live with Mormon Mincers, Polio, Scabbed, HEMATOPOIETIC, Magnificent, Brain Mush, Dumpster Abortion, and NO_CLIP at Ground Zero Studios on March 22nd, 2025.
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