YWHW Nailgun Brings Perfectly Orchestrated Chaos to L'Escogriffe

YHWH Nailgun hit Montreal this Wednesday night as one of their last stops on the Healing Chariot Tour. After touring the UK, US and Canada, they’ve evidently gained momentum. The four-man experimental rock group have found their groove, bestowing as much of a musical experience as one of performance. YHWH (pronounced Yahweh) has a certified fresh noise; their first album, 45 Pounds, draws from various aspects of punk and progressive rock with synth and avant-garde sounds, and they erratically create a distinctive and affective sound. Made up of Zack Borzone on vocals, Saguiv Rosenstock on guitar, Jack Tobias on synth and electronics and Sam Pickard on drums, each bringing a crucial and equally enriching role. With the use of a rototom drum, allowing for a quick change in pitch, Pickard adeptly creates highly precise and sharp sounds, resonant of progressive rock rhythms but generationally evolved. Notes of industrial come in with haunting screeches and atmospheric synths, rising and falling. 

They’ve cultivated a strong rapport with silence and tension, both through their music and performance. The quick pauses and moments of breath are quite notable in their music and even more tangible when versed live. Throughout the set, with thick air and a swaying mosh pit, in the times in between songs, Borzone stands silently staring down the crowd. His eyes dart from person to person, and his presence holds everyone’s attention in the room as a typically unconventional silence falls into normality. Somehow, one of the most intimate and effective crowd interactions I’ve witnessed, with little to no words directly spoken. As the sonic experience settles in these withheld spaces, slowly but surely, a rising synth reappears; “Animal Death Already Breathing” opens with an almost medieval, soldier chant-esque melody. With that first drum hit, we’re brought right back into the grinding, all-encompassing noise. 

The already lively crowd was riled up even further with the band's performance, giving each song their all, coming back stronger with each pause. YHWH Nailgun seems to be bigger than the music itself. With their sound being all at once technical and raw, reminiscent of past influence yet uniquely futuristic in practice, there’s a certain universality to their music. They’ve somehow managed to hit every mark, and in tandem with their presence and identity, an interaction with them, whether streamed online or heard live, is surely unforgettable.