1000 Hurts

Description

As a producer, the leader of Shellac (none other than Steve Albini) has worked with Nirvana on In Utero, as well as with the Pixies and P.J. Harvey. These are impressive credentials that can be summed up, to put it briefly, as a sonic explosion that few bands have managed to create. To the point that he has had a major influence as a guitarist on hardcore and post-industrial movements. With a sharp pen for the cult fanzine Forced Exposure, he had already made his mark with Big Black, whose oppressive atmospheres from the early EPs, influenced by Throbbing Gristle covering James Brown, left a lasting impression on many. However, it is the ultra-minimal formula developed with Shellac that establishes him as the gray eminence of hardcore sound. In this genre, 1000 Hurts consists solely of repetitive skeletal riffs and leaden rhythms with an unsettling coldness. It is one of the lesser-known paragons of alternative rock as it is practiced in the United States.