Nils, The

***The Nils are a Montreal punk rock band formed in 1978 by Alex Soria. The Nils first gained local notoriety upon the 1983 release of a five-song demo entitled Now. Their self-titled debut album was released to critical acclaim in 1987, and earned praise from Rolling Stone and contemporary punk rock bands, including Hüsker Dü. The Nils disbanded and reformed on various occasions in the 1990s and early 2000s, until the death of Alex Soria in 2004. In 2010 Carlos Soria reformed the band, and in 2015 The Nils released Shadows and Ghosts, their first album of new material in over 25 years.

The Nils Now on Artifix Records is the very first time the band’s complete self-released 1983 demo cassette is being released on vinyl. With a sound reminiscent of Husker Du, and the inspiration to bands like the Libido Boyz, The Nils proved at their beginning that they were a band with raw energy that blends hard-driving melodic rock with punk. Tim Yohannan of Maximum Rocknroll highlighted its heavy guitar orientation and hook-filled, Wipers-esque style, marking it as a significant, early change of pace for the era. All five songs from the 1983 demo are on this 7”EP, which comes in both splatter red & black and regular black vinyl versions with cardstock cover with art by 1980s punk artist Brian Walsby and lyric insert.

Edition of 500 copies.