Moncton trio The Nuclear have returned to action with No Emotion, their first new album in over a decade.
Matt Carter
Moncton trio The Nuclear have returned to action with No Emotion, their first new album in over a decade.
Formed somewhere around 2006 by friends Marco Rocca, Pascal Toussaint and Tom Antle, The Nuclear would remain an active unit for the next five years before families and new careers would see the band embark on an indefinite hiatus.
“We had all been playing in heavier, faster paced punk bands for a little over 10 years at that point in time,” said Rocca, explaining the group’s formation. “The idea was to create a band with a different creative outlet, something where we could explore all of our influences and love of music. It ended up landing somewhere closer to the punk side of our roots.”
No Emotion definitely follows the punk inspired path first plotted on the group’s self-titled 2008 debut but manages to break form on occasion with tracks like New Song and the album’s attention grabbing opener, Can’t Have Your Say, with its clever shifts in timing and punchy lyrical delivery.
The album’s foundation is deeply rooted in the polished sound of the 90s punk revival with many of the genre’s defining traits on full display. Centred around predominantly mid-tempo songs that evolve from catchy introductory riffs, the band effectively blend the immediate hooks and accessibility associated with bands like Green Day and The Queers, with the complexity and precise musicianship of any Descendents album from the past twenty years. The influence of the latter being an unavoidable sonic pillar, especially when you consider The Nuclear grew out of two bands named after Descendents songs.
“With the first record, I think there was more emphasis on setting ourselves apart from the previous bands we played in,” said Rocca. “We didn’t want it to sound like two members of Hope and a member of Sour Grapes. So we focused on producing songs that had clear inspiration from old rock and roll bands that we loved.”
As with the band itself, No Emotion has been ready and waiting to be heard for some time now. It was just a matter of when. The album was tracked in 2011 and has since sat waiting on a hard drive in Nova Scotia until sometime last year.
“I had always intended on reuniting the band when the time was right,” said Rocca. “I just wanted to focus on building a career doing something I loved locally so I could be here for my son, instead of being on the road trying to build a following for a relatively new and unknown band.
“The fact that we had this album sitting on a hard drive in Dartmouth, you could say it was gnawing on my mind a bit,” he said. “So I contacted Craig Sperry, our engineer, about maybe getting it mixed around this time last year. The process of mixing this album years later ended up motivating me and created an excitement I hadn’t felt in a long time. The rest of the guys were happy to start back as if we never stopped and it honestly feels that way.”
A lot has changed within the band’s hometown scene since the days when Hope and Sour Grapes were two of the city’s busiest punk rock exports. These days many of Moncton’s punk inspired acts have been taking a decidedly less polished approach, tapping the raw energy of first wave punk and garage rock as a main source of inspiration. It’s almost like the city and its thriving scene have been keeping The Nuclear’s place vacant out of respect and anticipation of the group’s return.
“We’ve been writing new tunes and are excited about recording a third album as soon as we can,” said Rocca. “It won’t take another 10 years this time.”
Watch for upcoming show announcements in the weeks to come.
Upcoming Performances:
The Nuclear + Chiller | February 8 | Thunder and Lightning | Sackville, NB | View Event
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