The story of The Chisel begins in 2020, when Nicholas “Nicky Sandwich” Sarnella (vocalist of the hardcore group Arms Race and already former member of The Chisel) and Callum “Bad Cal” Graham (member of the electronic bands Nation Unrest and Natural Assembly) come together to start a project together without any particular pretext. They are joined by Charlie “Chubby Charles” Manning-Walker (vocalist of Chubby And The Gang), on guitars, to record his first EP “Deconstructive Surgery” with La Vida en un Mus, a London punk record label founded by the Granada-based in England Francisco Aranda, with which the band also released their next two short works and also their debut “Retaliation”, from the end of 2021.
The style of The Chisel has its foundations in the punk rock of the late seventies and early eighties and is inspired both lyrically and stylistically by the struggle of the working class and street culture without giving up its old school punk sound to moments in which that hardcore takes an important role to add immediacy and aggressiveness to its anti-political and rebellious manifesto that youth seems to have forgotten even though we are experiencing one of the most confusing and uncertain moments in recent decades in many aspects.
With his new album, titled “What A Fucking Nightmare” and released this time by the American label Pure Noise Records, the British continue their path spreading their anger towards high leaders, manipulation and social discontent caused by an increasingly capitalist world. To tell the truth, and although its message is quite important, it will not reveal anything to those people already seasoned in the English punk of Cock Sparrer, The Exploited and Sham 69 or the Americans The Casualties.
Although the continuity of “What A Fucking Nightmare” Let’s be clear about their debut album, it seems that in this new reference from the Londoners there is a little less surprise (the little that a punk band can give at this point in life if they don’t risk a little) and a little more melody. The drop in quality is negligible, almost so imperceptible that citing it borders on absurdity, but the truth is that we are dealing with nothing more than a good punk rock album in which any small change is noticeable.
Saving the cliché and stereotypes that you sometimes feel when listening to them and that already smell a bit closed of kids with high boots, shaved heads and Harrington jackets who seem to be angry even with their mothers and who live between beers and screams in the ultra stands of the football games, “What A Fucking Nightmare” is one of those necessary and direct albums with sixteen hit songs from which there is almost nothing to waste and among which the fast and loud ones could be highlighted “No Gimmicks” or the singles already presented “Cry Your Eyes Out”“Bloodsucker” y “Fuck ‘Em”. Although it is true that their approach to simpler rock in the last minutes of the album does not favor them at all, when listening to them you know that they will be one of those bands that you will enjoy to the fullest at a concert.