NOTHING - A Short History Of Decay

Since 2014, Nothing have had to carry the complicated legacy of “Guilty Of Everything“, their debut album and one of the finest shoegaze records ever made. That's where the fuse was lit that would eventually turn that enveloping sound into a viral TikTok trend, consumed by today's teenagers thanks to its introverted mood and bursts of energy, which pair perfectly with the sense of disorientation and disillusionment marking our times. The Philadelphia band has never quite hit those same heights again, but they've kept turning out consistently strong records, like this “A Short History Of Decay”, a brief chronicle of the physical and emotional decay of singer, guitarist and chief songwriter Dominic Palermo. It's an autobiographical account of a controlled demolition, co-produced with trusty Nick Bassett of Whirr – already involved with Deafheaven and Nothing themselves – and recorded with Doyle Martin and Cam Smith of Cloakroom, plus Bobb Bruno on bass and Zachary Jones on drums.

The backbone of the album is made up of its most violent tracks: “A Short History Of Decay”, which returns to My Bloody Valentine aesthetics, with insurmountable walls of heavily effected guitars and vocals kept buried in the final mix, “Toothless Coal”, riding along the same nineties-oriented tracks, and the surprising “Cannibal World”, which taps into unexpected contaminations, laying Nothing's trademark sound over an unpredictable jungle rhythm. Around this solid framework, Nothing lines up a constellation of slower tracks, some marked by acoustic touches, more “clean” songs in which the sounds turn crystalline and the words come through clearly. Because this time Palermo is tackling themes he wants to share in an understandable way. In the past he's already built entire records around his own misadventures, from time in prison to involvement in a brawl, all the way to being diagnosed with a neurodegenerative disease, singing in that detached, almost anesthetized tone, while beneath him the world always seems on the verge of imploding.

Palermo suffers from a form of uncontrollable tremor, a disorder similar to Parkinson's disease, which could in the future compromise both his movements and his voice. It's no coincidence that the closing track is titled “Essential Tremors”, a sumptuous crescendo built by drawing inspiration from the best moments of less abrasive grunge, with a triumphant ending worthy of Nothing at their best. As for the “cleaner” tracks I mentioned: the soft “The Rain Don’t Care”, whose songwriting shows a pleasant Americana influence, the melancholic “Ballet Of The Traitor”, the round arpeggios of “Nerve Scales”, the super-melodic “Never Come Never Morning”, which opens the record recounting not always pleasant childhood memories, and above all the poignant “Purple Strings”, a decoding of Radiohead's coordinates complete with string arrangement and a contribution from Mary Lattimore on harp. The result is a mapping of present-day pain and fear for the future, a manifesto on the approach of the end. Nothing hadn't made an entirely self-contained work since 2020: “A Short History Of Decay” lays the groundwork for a successful restart, once again turning noise into a form of aching poetry and melody into a resigned acceptance of the void.

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01/03/2026