All posts by vladkraykulla

Active member of alternative underground scene and culture since early 1990-ies. Underground is a way of life!
Reviews, Various

(record review)SMOKEBOMB-Ninja Tape

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Remember the mid 90-ies when bands like Downset and similar bands prowled the clubs delivering the energetic mixture of rap and hardcore punk with a metal twist to the hordes of ravenous kids? Well, Smokebomb from Brussels, Belgium remind me just of that wild times. I listened and reviewed their debut release for this zine.

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These guys grew and developed their experience in the Belgian hardcore punk scene, until they formed this band in 2017. to spread around their Smokecore, like they call their music, a mixture of hardcore punk and rap with metal guitar hooks. This debut demo tape contains 7 songs. Personally, I am not some avid fan of such music, I never was really, but this sounds fresh and energetic with a lot of brutal mosh hardcore parts, some fast pure punk hardcore song structures and rap vocal lines. I would only love that the singer sounds more diverse, I don˙t know, somehow I got the feeling that he is better at pure hardcore shouting parts than rapping parts. One song that I must put above all the others is Underground Warrior which was a real ripper with awesome blastbeats, even death metal influences parts, hardcore and pure rage. As the record progressed I started to like it more and more with The Way We Do It being another example of great song. Also, Face The Fact was cool for me. This is a good debut and if you are a fan of such music, go grab one tape and contact the guys.

7,5/10

https://www.facebook.com/SmokeBombBXL/

https://smokebombbxl.bandcamp.com/album/ninja-tape-bmb-rcds001

 

Reviews, Various

(record review)The Draculads-From Parts Unknown

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I love The Theatre Zombies, we featured the review of their record and interviewed the band for this zine. This is the new project by Michael and Rob from The Theatre Zombies.

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The Draculads record contains 6 songs. If you listened to The Theatre Zombies, you know approximately what to expect. That means, fast melodic and energetic horrorpunk. Well, the music of The Draculads is similar, but even more melodic, catchy and with more pop punk influences than the above mentioned band.

The record is maybe from parts unknown like the title says, but the guys manage to know their way really well with catchy and anthemic horrorpunk tunes like Night Bride or The Presence(my favorite song on the record). What really surprised me even more pleasently is the final song on this record being atmospheric, dark and poppy tune Dark Embrace which was so great that I listened to the song for three times in the row. This is very good record if you like your horrorpunk melodic, anthemic and awesome.

8,5/10

https://thedraculads.bandcamp.com/album/from-parts-unknown

 

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(column)THE GODFATHERS OF HARDCORE

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I love music documentaries. Especially, when they deal with one of my all time favorite bands, namely Agnostic Front from New York.

These guys have been around since the early 80-ies becoming the epitome of New York hardcore punk scene.

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When I was a kid, I learned about hardcore punk through bands like Biohazard, Sick Of It All, Life Of Agony and on the back of one Biohazard t-shirt, their guitar player Bobby Hambel wore a hat or a t-shirt with the title Agnostic Front, so I thought to myself, cool name for a band, it can`t be bad when Biohazard Bobby wears their shirt/hat. I was a kid with wide eyes exploring for me every day growing hardcore punk world.

Then Madball˙s first record Set It Off came out and there was that famous Dynamo 95. special episode of Headbanger`s Ball, hosted by Biohazard themselves in which they interviewed Madball ant they talked with pride and respect about AF. I went out and got myself the Last Warning/United Blood AF cd with their last show and I was stuck with the power impact of hardcore force in the music and the lyrics. Couple of years passed and AF re-formed, Something´s Gotta Give album came out and upon hearing that album in combination with their older songs I became total fan and they had so great influence on me and my hardcore philosophy that they made me a better man I am today. Their songs were with me through both good and bad times in my life.

Now, this movie came out, I long awaited to see it and I did see it yesterday. It tells the life story of AF through life, eyes and philosophy of two main men, the singer Roger Miret and iconic guitarist Vinnie Stigma. It made my heart warm to see how simple these guys are, how they still live what they sing about although both in their late 50-s/early 60-s. I read Roger˙s book a while ago, so I knew the kind of hard life he had with abusive stepfather and why he rather chose to live in the streets, so the music saved his life in a way. Stigma is also one of the most sincere, friendly and larger than life characters in the hardcore punk scene. This movie made me nostalgic, inspired, touched, heartwarming and only tightened my strength and resolve to persist in doing fine work to improve our beloved scene.