Local Review: State Of The Nation – State Of The Nation

State Of The Nation
State Of The Nation
Revelation Records
Street: 01.01.1995
State Of The Nation = Rage Against The Machine + Green Day

While grunge reigned supreme, the ‘90s held a special place for all subgenres of rock, leading to probably the greatest bubble of alternative music of all time. A convergence point of different sounds, State Of The Nation acts as a snapshot in time of punk, emo and grunge. Comprised of Rob Haworth on guitar and vocals, Mark Haworth on bass and Andy Patterson on drums, Salt Lake City band of yesteryear State of The Nation manages to find a way to scratch the itch of all these subgenres, and it almost feels like an overview of the decade of the ‘90s in its own right.

Tonally, the tracks sound fantastic. Mark Haworth’s bass cuts through like Krist Novoscelic on a Nirvana album and between the trio, a wall of sound almost builds like fellow ‘90s trio Green Day. Furthermore, it’s so satisfying when an album as quality as this is just as concise as it is sonically consistent.

The very first track foreshadows the front of the album, with riff-based rock songs that sound like they could’ve been ripped straight from My Chemical Romance‘s Unconventional Weapons EP. The track throws you straight into the action, a cold water plunge and it’s easy to see why. Simply put, a fantastic introduction. “Replace” moves more through the decade with some math-rock adjacent guitar playing getting its chance to shine. It is at this point I find a quality in the group that I would attribute to bands such as Space Hog. That same catchy songwriting makes me want to nominate “Matter Over Mind” to be in the soundtrack of the next Skate game series. So many of these tracks feel like they were meant to be put on a soundtrack; it’s all I could think about while listening.

The title track is easily a highlight, along with being one of my favorite tracks on the album — it’s Rage Against The Machine (of which State Of The Nation toured with back in the day) meets Flobots with its thought provoking spoken word style pentameter. The acoustic ballad “String” is a welcome change from the distorted anthems from the front of the album, including some absolutely fantastic songwriting from Rob Haworth. The production of the project has this fantastic warmth and clarity to the recordings that,especially on “String,” really become apparent. “Commercial” spices things up with this weird, nightmarish doom rock bass part that sounds like evil Mazzy Star (or a Joy Division demo.) It’s positively great songwriting. I feel almost guilty outsourcing these comparisons to other bands; however, I hope it only highlights how applicable State Of The Nation’s songwriting is.

The more I listen to this project, the more impressed I am that it’s the byproduct of only three people. No space is wasted. Every track fits next to each other like a museum with a common theme between the paintings. While still having an authentic, homemade feel, the project still feels much larger somehow. The music expands outwards, just like the rebellious undertones and revolution-based songwriting. The politically rooted songwriting had the potential to wear itself thin, but by the end of the project, I was instead hoping for more (and just maybe i’ll have to satiate that hunger by checking out the groups debut release, Objective Complete).

In conclusion, State Of The Nation acts as a fantastic snapshot of punk and alternative music of the ‘90s. Between its riff-based songwriting and great guitar playing, as well as vocal passages I would never have anticipated, State Of The Nation is fantastically satisfying for those wanting just a little more punk in their lives. —Jake Fabbri

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