It’s no secret that the good folks at The Nu Metal Agenda have been keeping an eye on Dallas hardcore heroes UnityTX for quite a while. Their 2023 debut full-length Ferality earned them a spot on our list of Top Contemporary Nu Metal Albums with its willingness to expand the band’s sound with high-risk, high-reward genre experiments. One of the most exciting detours was the darkly sexy industrial swagger of “DIAMOND DIEZ,” which sounds just as good from a moshpit as it would from the dance floor of your local goth club. The band’s newest single, “MASTICATE,” follows in “DIAMOND DIEZ”’s highly danceable footsteps with the comfort of nu-metal Cinderella slipping her foot into a black Swing-815.
Much to the continued chagrin of, idk, your dad probably, guitars are conspicuously absent here–what we get from UnityTX is a solid, straightforward mid-tempo EDM track with driving bass, plenty of catchy synth arpeggios, and an obligatory orchestral build in the last 30 seconds. But frontman Jay Webster eats beats like this for breakfast, and his performance on “MASTICATE” gives the track an undeniable dynamism and urgency. He delivers his verses slowly, with a deep, commanding calm, then shifts into frantic double-time screaming for the choruses.
Lyrically, Webster walks a fine line between confidence and anxiety that is both deeply of the times and nu-metal as hell. “Life’s lookin’ like a cinema now,” he shouts, “Do my thing, I don’t give a fuck what I’m allowed.” But even while unapologetically barreling towards his goals, he’s still looking over his shoulder and reminding anyone listening to do the same–“When there’s danger in your lane, are you gonna get out?” The first line of the song, “There’s a billion motherfuckers / Who the fuck are you now” evolves into a central refrain over the course of the track, a full-throated challenge to look inward and drill down on what makes you you in the face of constant pressure to sacrifice your passions on the alter of grind culture and doomist complacency. “MASTICATE” is music made with the understanding that nu-metal’s “Get the Fuck Up” is a spiritual call, and a convincing argument for what the genre can still bring us close to three decades after its inception.
“MASTICATE” is available to stream on your platform of choice, and be sure to catch UnityTX live while they tour the US this month.
