More about: Nova Twins

The spirit of punk is alive and well in the UK. Bristol band IDLES lead the way with a quartet of hard-hitting, left wing, rage-inspired albums, Bob Vylan take it one step further with calls for violent action to start a revolution and London-based duo, Nova Twins — whilst musically having more in common with the early-2000s nu-metal scene — angrily confront stereotypes within rock music. 

The latter’s music is harsh, with their lyrics even harsher and on second album Supernova, they call to mind chest-beating rappers like Kanye West and Little Simz with their bold proclamations, often accompanied by graphically violent narrations. 

Supernova is dark, heavy and infinitely inventive with layers within each song compelling you to enter and stay within Nova Twins’s world. Singer and guitarist Amy Love delivers an array of different vocal styles, often with a distinctive yelp roughly somewhere in the middle of Missy Elliott, Santigold and YONAKA’s Theresa Jarvis. Love and bassist Georgia South’s riffs are mercilessly heavy, rarely softening as crashing drums add a heartbeat to the songs. 

Five of the songs will already be familiar to fans with five additional full-blown songs and a 50-second opener taking the 11-track album to a slender 30 minutes playing time. 

Previously Radio 1’s ‘Hottest Record in the World’, lead single ‘Antagonist’ holds you tight in its grip from the off with a brief scream in the bridge leading you into a pop chorus over a Royal Blood-style riff. It’s a defiant anthem about standing your ground in the face of those who judge you for being who you are. The heavy riff is accompanied by dubstep bass towards the end of the track enhancing its power. 

‘K.M.B.’ sees Love rap in the style of D-12 for the verses of this horror-influenced track with a chorus pronouncing: “Get my fucking crowbar, take you to the graveyard”. In their inimitable style, the Nova Twins are declaring that, in the game of love, they are in charge. ‘Cleopatra’, inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement and the celebration of Black women, sees Love playing the title character and singing: “I’m a boss, bitch. I’m Cleopatra” over a rock track tinged with Egyptian-sounding production. 

‘Puzzles’ is Nova Twins’s interpretation of a sensual R’n’B song… so heavy guitars it is, plenty of references to the fact that they are in charge of the situation and an animalistic, but melodic, “uh-uh” chorus. 

The fifth and final preview of Supernova is recent single, ‘Choose Your Fighter’ – Love and South leading a Slipknot-esque riff with the lyrics seemingly a match in heaven for a fighter videogame like Tekken. 

Elsewhere, ‘Fire & Ice’, ‘Toolbox’ and ‘Enemy’ maintain the ‘girls in charge’ theme of Supernova: the former a creepy number confirming their alpha-female status in a relationship with lyrics such as: “I wanna strut, I wanna scream, I wanna fuck, I wanna fight” and “I like to creep into your dreams, turn them into nightmares”; ‘Enemy’ a threatening ode to those who don’t get behind the duo; and ‘Toolbox’ perhaps the best showcase of Nova Twins’s unique sound mixing softly sung verses, rap and rock with Love vowing retribution for being wronged. 

The ’macho’ (is there a female equivalent for this word? Facho?) energy gives way to vulnerability in ‘A Dark Place for Somewhere Beautiful’ which confronts the death of a family member. With a start and end with faint echoes of Rammstein’s ‘Feuer Frei!’, Love reaches for poetic descriptions in the verses (“anchored to an empty shell, a hollow space for someone else, whistle and bells, a cry for help”) which points to being in the understandable grips of depression following the loss. 

Supernova closes with ‘Sleep Paralysis’ which is notable for the straightforward nature of the song, with Love chronicling the scary inertia of the condition. Hushed vocals accompany the xylophone-led verses before a big chorus befitting of a band like Nightwish comes in. The song suggests that there is more depth and nuance to be explored by the duo and confirms them as horror soundtrack architects in-waiting. 

Having begun the album with ‘Power (Intro)’, with synths putting you in mind of the opening of a spaceship and monotonous addresses saying: “Supernova own your power, supernova, you are power”, it’s unsurprising that power is central to the following 10 tracks. Nova Twins are proud of who they are and Supernova is a visceral vehicle in which they express this. 

In a fairly barren landscape of heavy guitar-led groups in the mainstream, Nova Twins buck that trend and Supernova (with the tracks perhaps standing out better on their own rather than as a collection) is an excellent second step in the band’s journey which promises so much more to come. 

Supernova arrives 17 June.

Grab your copy of the Gigwise print magazine here.

More about: Nova Twins