NEQUIENT: No Echo Premieres Title Track To New EP By Chicago Metallic Hardcore Band; Collective Punishment Nears November Release Through Nefarious Industries

October 21, 2021 Infrared Magazine Music News, News, Press Releases Comments Off

photo by Nicolas Côté

As Chicago-based metallic hardcore quartet NEQUIENT prepares for the early November Nefarious Industries release of their Collective Punishment EP, the title track is now playing through an exclusive stream hosted by No Echo.

Building on a foundation of thrashing d-beat, NEQUIENT draws influences from a broad spectrum of aggressive styles including grindcore, crust, sludge, death metal, black metal, and noise rock. The result is a uniquely punishing sound that emphasizes percussive intensity and razor-sharp hooks.

Collective Punishment features new tracks “Collective Punishment” and “Strange Death Of Kings,” produced by Pete Grossmann at Bricktop Recording (Weekend Nachos, Like Rats) and mixed by Sanford Parker at Hypercube (Voivod, Yob, Eyehategod, Lord Mantis), as well as “First Casualty” and “Coins For The Ferryman” recorded live October 20th, 2019 by Alan Sifuentes at Valdosta DIY House and mixed by Patrick Conahan. The EP was mastered by Collin Jordan at the Boiler Room and completed with artwork and logo by M. G. Miller.

NEQUIENT vocalist Jason Kolkey states, “The Collective Punishment EP is a concise reintroduction to what we do as a band and a reaffirmation of our status as DIY lifers. First, we wanted to give you a preview of the kinds of sounds you can expect from our upcoming full-length with two outtakes from those sessions: Our latest crop of songs finds us out for blood with grinding thrashers like the title track while we continue to expand our horizons through more experimental, noisy excursions like ‘Strange Death Of Kings.’ In addition, you get a taste of our live assault from two performances recorded raw in the living room of the amazing Valdosta DIY House in southern Georgia.

“We’ve never been a band to stick to a single style, and the song ‘Collective Punishment’ demonstrates how we synthesize many different flavors of heaviness. This track careens from thrashy verses into grinding blasts and a sludgy breakdown, touching on a few other points in between. The lyrics match that unrelentingly aggressive yet thoughtful approach by focusing on the reckoning with police violence in the US as well as addressing how those issues connect to the bigger picture of minority populations struggling for life and dignity around the world.”

No Echo writes with the song’s premiere, “Since forming in 2014, NEQUIENT have been cooking up a tasty stew of death metal, grindcore, sludge, and whatever the fuck you called what Assück played. You have to have the musical chops to pull this off convincibly, and luckily for us, the Chicago-based outfit has them in spades.”

Check out NEQUIENT’s “Collective Punishment” first at No Echo RIGHT HERE.

Nefarious Industries will release Collective Punishment on all digital platforms and in a limited run of cassettes on November 5th. Find preorders including merch bundles and more at the label webshop where “Coins For The Ferryman” live is streaming HERE. All proceeds the band’s presales will be donated to Equal Justice Initiative.

NEQUIENT will also be performing at the Peace Simulation Midwest Pop Up Showcase in Chicago on December 4th, joining Blood Incantation, Primitive Man, Inter Arma, Indian, Yautja and more.

NEQUIENT Live:
12/04/2021 Reggies – Chicago, IL @ Peace Simulation Midwest Pop Up Showcase [info]

Formed in 2014, NEQUIENT’s first official release was 2015’s Infinite Regress EP, the start of a longstanding collaboration with producer Pete Grossmann (Immortal Bird, Something Is Waiting, Warforged) at Bricktop Recording in Chicago. Following a few personnel shifts, the group settled on its current configuration and forged a debut full-length, Wolves At The Door, issued in 2018 by Nefarious Industries, and NEQUIENT set out on a campaign of DIY touring in support of the album, playing every dive bar, basement, community center, banquet hall, and benefit festival that would have them. Those travels culminated in a late 2019 run with Danish avant-hardcore technicians, labelmates Oxx.

A few months later, NEQUIENT reconvened at Bricktop to track a new album, once again helmed by Grossmann, not realizing that the global pandemic would soon slow all further progress to a maddening crawl. In 2021, the band will at last make its comeback with the digital EP Collective Punishment, which acts as a harbinger for their second full-length, Darker Than Death Or Night.

Watch for additional intel on Darker Than Death Or Night to follow directly after the release of Collective Punishment, as the LP is slated for release in the first quarter of 2022 in conjunction with US tour dates.