(review) Jerry Only – Anti-Hero

I was wondering what was Jerry Only up to since Misfits now play reunited with Danzig under the moniker Original Misfits, so I guess Danzig made ultimatum to Jerry not to continue that ghastly version of family band under the name of legendary horror punk icons and one of my favorite bands of all time.

Well, here is my answer. Jerry Only released solo album and the music continues in similar path of last Misfits studio effort Devil’s Rain and couple of singles afterwards. That means a mixture of horror punk roots, melodic hard rock and even stadium metal. There are only eight songs on this one. So let us present this one:

Fear The Walking Dead – generic hard rock/horror punk song, boring and unimaginative with stupid synth intro. Not great beginning.

Snake Eyes – more up tempo metal punk rock song with good chorus and it is a decent effort, I liked this one.

Anti-Heroes – great melody and anthemic begin, but the song is just plain boring with piano parts where there should be no such thing, kinda reminding of seventies glam rock in some parts.

Taboo – just horrible, this is probably the worst song on this record, just horrible generic rock n roll with horror lyrics, a plain disaster.

(You’re So Square) Baby I Don’t Care – the title reminds of some Motorhead song, but in fact this is a decent doo wop influenced punk rock song reminding of old Misfits spirit in a way, I liked this one.

One Cell From You – again, so boring and uneventful song, no verse, just lame chorus and plain emptiness.

Dead Men – has all those old school Misfits shouts when the song starts, even decent melody on the verse but the chorus spoils it all, ruins the song absolutely.

Illuminati – well our old Jerry Only is having his revenge upon Illuminati and their conspiracies, this is in fact a decent song again on melody and verse, but chorus is also massive and strong made for singing along and this is for me best out of three decent songs on this record.

So, three decent, five just bad. Avoid.

(book review) David Gamage- A Hardcore Heart Adventures In A DIY Scene

Well, growing up as hardcore kid in the nineties I can totally relate to this book. This is a really big book which tells about David´s adventures as a guitarist for touring bands. What I always loved reading in fanzines is tour diaries and this book reminds me of just that. Touring. All the troubles, all the joy, all the problems with promoters, sound, van breaking down or having a puncture, job worries. David is best known as guitarist for UK melodic punk band Couch Potatoes but also being a part of the UK hardcore punk scene for more than three decades now. This book is in fact a document of this life and work, but also a tour de force document about history of UK DIY hardcore punk scene in the nineties and all the bands, I must admit that I found couple of that I never heard before and will definitely investigate and have a listen. This book is just hardcore from the heart, written by hardcore kid for hardcore kids. More than 600 pages topped with superb photographs and also flyers and gig posters. A document about time which may have passed but remains in heart, also a coming of age story.

(review) Malatesta – Unter Tage

Long time no crust hardcore punk on the pages of this zine. So, it is time for me to correct that mistake and I can safely say that Malatesta are best band for that. These guys are hailing from Munich, Germany. This brand new opus contains eight songs. Lyrics are in German language and deal with inner struggle and battling inner demons, machoism, sexism but from personal side of things. So, that means lyrics are not your usual d-beat crust punk about war, nuclear terror, post apocalypse and similar merry themes, though there is nothing wrong with that. Malatesta play d-beat hardcore crust punk but guitars create lots of melody that sounds so great, haunting and melancholic, so I can say there are also, or at least I hear it, some black metal influences in guitar work, I can hear some Darkthrone in their crusty albums in some guitars but I can tell you, this album contains great songwriting and does not get boring, that means not every song is similar, like it is often case with bands that play this kind of music. This is energy, melody, melancholy and darkness in eight opuses. I would so like to see this band play live, I am sure their show is energy pure. Go check this one out. You will not regret it.

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