With the global pandemic halting their touring plans to support last year's Moral Panic album, NBT much like many artists hopped back into the studio and came out with this 5 track EP, Moral Panic II. As the name suggests, it focuses on the same lyrical themes and ideas as the album. That had me slightly worried as the album felt fairly undercooked and predictable, and trying a little too hard to be edgy without the substance to back it up.
While not mind blowing, MPII is certainly a step up from the album, being better written and falling into fewer played out radio rock tropes. Every song here is better than about half of that album. The two singles Futureproof and Miracle, Baby feel slightly overproduced and blown out; but not to an egregious extent. Miracle, Baby has actually grown on me a bit, being one of the band's big slow burn songs with a massive chorus. Futureproof is definitely the weakest track, as it goes for that similar edgy but also pretty safe sounding semi-industrial instrumentation that goes nowhere near hard enough to be truly intense or aggressive and fairly shallow lyrics about "how we all care more about social media than making the planet better" that NBT have done several times, let alone other artists.
The closer Your Blood is also something I feel the band has done before, being a 90s Radiohead style ballad. This one sounds somewhere in between Fake Plastic Trees and Exit Music (For A Film). It's alright, but when the track begins to build to its climax, it doesn't do anything particularly creative or unique, just a kind of crunchy guitar riff. It really doesn't build the intensity like the way Exit Music just crashes down on you after its climactic swell.
The two other songs here are the best ones. If I Were You is pretty standard NBT, with a crunchy and swaggering riff and disenfranchised lyrics which seem quite obviously targeted at governments' poor handling of the pandemic. It's chantable and aggressive, and a decent song. Ce n'est Rien is the biggest leftfield moment on the EP, being a ferocious alt metal rager where Connor Mason literally screams, which is something new for the band. The track alternates between much gentler verses and this powerhouse of a chorus, making the track really dynamic and exciting.
MPII is a step up in overall quality from the Moral Panic album, but I wouldn't say it is at the same level of Broken Machine or the What Did You Think When You Made Me This Way? EP. It is nice to know they haven't completely lost their edge though.
Top Tracks: If I Were You, Miracle, Baby, Ce n'est Rien
6/10
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