I had the privilege of attending Punitive Damage’s record release show last November. It was one hell of a show (at which I got so effectively crowd killed I had to get a couple fillings redone), but one band stood out from the others: Second Nature. They are a new group featuring members of A Mourning Star and Groza, other Vancouver-area greats. Their set was a bit of a change of pace from the rest of the bands at the show, and it had me eagerly anticipating news of a potential upcoming release. My wishes were granted in the form of ***Be Careful What You Wish For, the brand-new EP released on Jan. 13, 2023.
Although this isn’t a show review, I want to mention the performance to provide important context: any recorded hardcore release is just a shadow of the live event (in my humble opinion). A hardcore band can stand on solid legs even if their release sounds like shit and their set is fantastic, but a highly produced barnburner won’t stick whatsoever if they can’t back it up live. Then there are the bands that make both sound great, such as Second Nature.
Five songs and ten minutes is all you really need from a hardcore release these days, and Second Nature makes the most of it. Not to dwell too long on the production end of things, but the mix sounds great; not polished, not abrasive, just aggressive in the right ways. The EP abounds with riffs, with opener “Naitch Bust” opening and closing with rhythms engineered for maximum two-step potential. Thankfully, this EP doesn’t break into mosh part after mosh part, as tracks are well paced with enough fast sections to make the hard parts hit even harder. If the whole song is hard and never changes its pace, it stands to lose the potential for a climactic moment.
***Be Careful What You Wish For has (for lack of a better term) a good sense of humor. Not necessarily lyrically, but both “Naitch Bust” and “Bad Character” trade singer Luka Sladoje’s growls for a brief section that can only be compared to hyping up your team before the last quarter of the big game. It’s fun, and with lyrics like, “Have I reached my limits? / Shall I raise the bar? / I can feel all these eyes on me / judging from afar,” you can’t help but want to sing along. On first listen I wondered if the two styles were a bit of a tonal mismatch, but I realized that the victory isn’t as good if the team didn’t overcome adversity.
Lyrics addressing repressed anger, inadvertent lashing out, and open self-criticism give the EP a more introspective tone that is much appreciated in the current hardcore landscape. This year there’s been unavoidable online discourse surrounding who’s a hardcore tourist versus who’s in it for the long haul. A new wave of fans is great (the more people involved that care, the better) but those seeking only to capitalize on something they don’t care about ***are antithetical to hardcore. This is all to say that Second Nature only has one track about punishing fakes. We’re all trying to be better people; it’s 2023.
My favourite track is probably “Malcolm’s Intro,” which is ironic due to it being the third track. I feel like the comparison is far too on the nose in 2023, but the melodic first half of the track along with the tambourine-backed second half took me back to hearing Turnstile’s “Keep It Moving” for the first time on a school laptop in 2017. Anything that can recreate that magical “first” feeling for anybody is deserving of praise. The magic is important, maybe more important than you’d think at first. “Malcolm’s Intro” has been running through my head for the last week, along with it’s “OHHHHH” ahead of the final riff. That sense of humour pays off well.
At the time of writing, I’m eagerly anticipating seeing Second Nature on Feb. 15, opening for Initiate and Punitive Damage at Fortune Sound Club. A band’s trajectory is fun to observe as they find a groove and find their identity among their peers. Second Nature checks all the boxes for a band to watch, and their EP is a good sign of things to come.
