All posts by vladkraykulla

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

(review) Stepped Out – Envy and Alienation

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Stepped Out are from Split, Croatia and I interviewed them for this zine couple of months ago.

Now, the guys released their brand new e.p. containing four songs. Braveheart is a melodic old school hardcore song with fast and singalong parts that I can totally relate to, because I think it is about Bila´s Mom who passed away and I lost mine too. Abandoned is an emotional song with a more modern hardcore touch and melody with excellent lyrics about finding yourself and finding strength to carry on when all seems lost. Modern Plague is most harsh song on this record reminding me a bit of Strife back in the nineties. The lyrics are about media, gadgets and modern world which rules the lives of most people on this planet. Lost In Flames is for me besides Braveheart the best song on this little release me being in the scene for so many years and reminding all the glory days, heartaches, happy times and sadness. Superb melody, lyrics and spirit.

Great one. This band carries on the torch of hardcore in Croatia.

Bandcamp

Power of the underground scene does not lie in social network!

This week on Thursday marks the sixth anniversary of this webzine. First, I want to thank all of you who read and are supporting this webzine since its inception till this day. We fought many battles and struggles together, attended festivals, gigs, met many new bands, labels, fantastic individuals who make this wonderful underground network or scene if you wish. Through many victories and heartbreaks we kept this small town in the north of Croatia on the map of the wide world underground scene. Thank you from the bottom of my heart and hopefully we will enjoy many more years and conquests together!

Second, this anniversary marks the beginning of a new era for this webzine, marking its return where it was spawned and meant to be, deeper in the underground and not in the spotlight of social networks like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and similar. As I stated above, power of the underground scene lies in individuality, creativity, imagination, creating a lot with little or nothing and still being the opposition to the usual and so called normal lifestyle. I am sick of social media, I am sick of people in the scene counting likes and clicks and who liked their posts and above all, I am sick of people watching gigs through mobile phones, posting their selfies to the social media during gig and watching how many likes are there and somehow all got lost in that shit.

This zine has a Facebook page which serves as a media between zine and people but it is useless. I do not care how many is the reach, how many people liked my post, because rarely someone opens the feature and actually reads it, they only click like and I really couldn´t care less about that. Also, there are stupid rules, stupid commentaries, stupid themes and music and ideas of the underground got lost in snowflakes, useless groups, liking, manic clicking and I am sick of that.

So, to conclude, Kraykulla Webzine is returning to underground and I will no more post features from zine to Kraykulla Fb page nor any other social media. Who wants to contact me can easily do that through mail address of this zine in the contact section of Kraykulla Webzine. Of course, bands, labels, partners and friends can share the material on their social media if they want, but I will not share it on this zine´s social media and I am abandoning that idea because I still believe in music, ideas, scene and not this insanity.

This also goes for my other webzine, namely North From Northern. Thank you so much and I will continue with this zine even stronger, you know where you can read the posts and find me. No more social media and social network, power of underground is stronger than that!

RATS ON ACID released their new single – Primitive!

Rats On Acid, are celebrating the return of gigging with the release of ‘Primitive’ – a new, raw, energetic stoner-rock anthem reflecting the hopelessness of the present youth.


Stream ‘Primitive’ here: https://soundcloud.com/ratsonacid/primitive/s-adSLPo9o3HY

Formed in the laundry room of the vocalist’s parents’ house, the band has been hard at work mastering their craft and perfecting their sound since the late 2010’s. With the introduction of Hugo Cooper, the new lead guitarist, came a new, slow, and filthy sound which birthed “Primitive”. Strongly influenced by the mid 90’s stoner rock and grunge scenes, this release is definitely one for fans of Alice In Chains, Fu Manchu and Kyuss. The lyrics, written by the band during a late night drinking session, seem comical but also present the feelings of anxiety, helplessness and confusion experienced by many young people today when every strand of hope is being taken away by the failure of people in places of responsibility.


“The lyrics are easy and memorable – everyone can interpret them in
their own way to fit what they are feeling at that specific moment. It can
be a song which you sing when you’re feeling angry, or when you’re in a
good mood, when you feel like life is ridiculous or that there is no hope
and you just don’t care. That’s why this song always feels good for me. It
adapts to your emotion and you can make it what you want it to be.” –
Konnie, the vocalist.


“The backing vocals sound powerful and big for a reason. We wanted it
to sound like there is a crowd of people standing with us, sharing the
listener’s emotions. Ensure that our fans, although separated, never feel
alone.” – Tom, the bassist and mixing and mastering engineer.
“Can we please skip the part where I give a quote?” – Chugs, the rhythm guitarist.
Rats On Acid’s ‘Primitive’ will be released on Friday 2nd July 2021 on all major streaming platforms.


Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3hkEcwC
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ratsonaciduk/