(review) THE DECLINE -‘Magical Misery Tour’ (Pee Records)

The Decline are from Australia and they were already featured on the pages of this webzine, This is their brand new album I am listening, courtesy of Pee Records. In fact this is the new full length album, but it is kind of compilation. Why? Because this beauty features 17 songs and on it you can find all the singles recorded during the pandemic and lockdown, It also contains fan favorites from seven inch singles, and also material from splits and compilations plus new single excellent ‘Hillsong Of The Damned’. Anyone who listened to The Decline know what can expect, that is awesome melodic punk done in old school nineties style without much philosophy but with superb conviction, excellent melodies and harmonies, fast skate punk rock but also mid tempo gentle punk rock anthems. Vocals are story for themselves. They are sooo sweet and so perfect that I am jealous of this band that I never had a band in which I could sing so beautiful. Backing vocal harmonies are also superb plus guitar hooks, catchy riffs, harsh where they need to be, melodic where they need to be, meaning all the time. My personal favorites are ‘Kenneth’, ‘Hillsong Of The Damned’, ‘Year Of The Crow’, ‘Fast Food’ and ‘The Werewolf Of Fever Swamp’ sounding awesome like Teenage Bottlerocket. Fast songs with lots of irony and humor cleverly mix with more emotional punk rock anthems. This band reminds me a lot of one of my favorite bands being No Use For A Name with song structures and way they play their music, there is a NUFAN cover on this record too! So, if you are into great melodic punk rock check out this band and have fun like I did!

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(review) Balek Panic – ‘The Spark’

Balek Panic are coming from Paris, France and this is their new release containing 6 songs of excellent fast and intense melodic punk rock, skate punk or melodic hardcore punk if you like it that way. Music is fast and reminds a lot of nineties punk from California on which I grew up listening. Lyrics are personal with a touch of humor in it like in ‘Tourism Is terrorism’. Vocals are nice, neither too mellow nor too harsh, just as you need it for this kind of punk rock. Melodies are beautiful and every harmony and backing vocals fit perfectly to the song part it was meant to. My favorites are ‘Dreams’, ‘Stuck on the same day’ and ‘Manipulator’ being somehow my highlights of this EP. I would like to see this band play live and would love a full length some time in the future.

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(review) Mašinko – ‘Pozovite rapsode’

Zagrebački punk rockeri Mašinko su se vratili s novim studijskim albumom nakon više od tri godine. Ova ljepota sadrži 14 pjesama od kojih je jedna svojevrstan intro. Naravno, tekstovi su opet na hrvatskom jeziku i važan su dio Mašinka pošto je Mašinko uvijek imao odlične tekstove, pa se pametni i pjesnički, te angažirani tekstovi miješaju kako ovaj album teče. Pjesma koja je odabrana kao single, odnosno ‘Sitne duše’ ne predstavlja album onako kako bi trebala, pošto je meni jedna od najslabijih na albumu. No, hitovi kao što su ‘Noć s petka na nedjelju’, ‘Na ramenima divova’, su himne na kakve smo navikli od Mašinka. ‘Ono što si ostavio’ je više balada, skoro pop pjesma i nije mi baš legla iako je tekst jako lijep, no pjesma me previše podsjetila na neki Psihomodo Pop ili nešto slično, jednostavno mi nije legla. ‘Preko zidova’ se vraća bržem tempu i tipičnom punk rocku dobre melodije, himničnog refrena i teksta. ‘Uzalud’ je mid tempo punk rock pjesma i takođe spada u jednu od onih koja mi nije legla na prvo slušanje, iako je tekst opet naravno odličan. ‘Obilje’ je za mene jedan od highlighta albuma i jedna od najboljih pjesama na ovom albumu, jedna od onih za koje si želiš da si ih sam napisao. Od ovih sporijih pjesama mi je legla ‘Skoro pa nešto’ koja je odsvirana skoro u 50s doo wop stilu i žao mi je da nema više oooo i aaaa backing vokala na ovoj stvari, jer bi bila još bolja. ‘Džingis kan’ je pomalo onako punk rock glupava stvar, ali ima odlične harmonije na vokalima, pošto skoro svi članovi Mašinka pjevaju i to ih čini posebnim. ‘Život tombola’ je još jedan od mojih highlighta na ovom albumu s prekrasnom melodijom na refrenu i mogu samo misliti kako ova stvar zvuči moćno live. Naslovna stvar je takođe žešća i odličan je primjer kako se radi brzi i melodični punk rock, nije slučajno izabrana kao single prije izlaska albuma. ‘Odlazim iz grada’ je melankolija street punka onako gorko slatko melankolično kako samo Mašinko može napraviti. Najosebujniji naslov pjesme na albumu je ‘Jedna morska kakvu Žera napiše za svaki album Crvene Jabuke’ i zatvara album na primjeren način. Dakle, da sumiramo, ima ponešto stvari koje mi nisu legle na prvu, ali riječ je o odličnom albumu na kakve smo od ovog benda navikli.

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