YHWH Nailgun - Magazine

To some, punk has been a stagnant pool for a while, the long proven formula of three-chord structures, D-beat drums and overly-didactic lyrics in obvious thrall to the hardcore progenitors of the ’80s. In 2025, however, came New York experimentalists YHWH Nailgun. Their debut LP, ‘45 Pounds’, was a taut, 21-minute barrage of oblique drumming, winded vocals, and wraithlike guitars that sounded more like ancient beasts wailing than any earthly combination of metal and wood. With this second album, ‘Magazine’, the band lean further into the intangible, proving their status as punk mystics and seers across an album that is an 11-minute distillation of what makes them such a force.


Metamorphosing from close, primitive grunts and thrashes to mechanical clanging doused in an ocean of reverb - as demonstrated on opener ‘Ghosts of Love’ or ‘Innocent Sigh’ - ‘Magazine’ is a far colder and ghostly release than its predecessor. Power and ferocity remains front and centre though, with ‘Stillness Blues’ propelling itself forward on a wave of ray-gun electronic stabs, before ‘Ballerina’ grooves and chatters with the idiosyncrasy of Sam Pickard’s drumming. While Zack Borzone’s lyrics were previously shrouded by effects, ‘Magazine’ shifts these sonic manipulations to the guitars and electronics, allowing for his cataclysmic imagery to peek through, particularly on ‘Give Blood’.


The last decade has been a period of rampant musical revivalism. Marketable sounds are perpetually repackaged and sold back to listeners creating a seemingly endless cycle of revivals of revivals ad infinitum. YHWH Nailgun break this cycle and, on ‘Magazine’, wholly prove their mettle as a truly original and prophetic act.