Mutant Reavers from Germany are in no way strangers to the pages of this webzine. Their horrorpunk releases were already reviewed and featured in this zine. This is their new e.p. The music of these 6 songs is concept driven and a bit different from their previous opuses. The music is melodic gothic industrial synthwave horrorpunk which remains in lyrics. I don’t know if it is only me but this e.p. reminds me a lot of Deathstars. I love the synth melodies, anthemic choruses and overall dystopian vibe and atmosphere of this opus. My personal favorites are Buffet of Brutality and My Dreams(Are Not Electrical). As the band says, next one will be back to more punk rock oriented music. But this one is different and awesome.
A bit older release but it just arrived to my eye and ear and legends deserve a review in this webzine. Kampfar from Norway have been in the scene for almost 30 years now, from 1994 mastermind Dolk and his gang deliver their mixture of Norwegian black metal, pagan metal and folk in long epics and this is their brand new opus containing 6 songs coming just under 45 minutes long. For those who don’t know yet, Kampfar is ancient Norse war cry meaning Odin or Wotan. Lyrics are again in Norwegian titles but sung in English as I could hear at times about heritage, nature, battles, pride and staying true at least it is how I understood them from translating titles. It is fascinating how Kampfar builds up from aggressive blasts of raw heritage of Norse black metal to more gentle acoustic atmospheric melodies and then mid tempo pagan almost ritualistic song parts. Although there are longer songs on almost every Kampfar release, there is not one second they get boring, at the contrary, they are exciting if you open your mind and let the music take you to mountains, north wind on your face and standing proud never letting them grind you down, warrior’s heart is hard to stop. My personal favorites: Urkraft, Flammen Fra Nord, Rekviem.
Something’s Cursed are from Queens, New York and this is their new release. This one contains five songs of emotional melodic punk rock with some pop punk and even horror punk influences in some songs. The songs are mainly mid tempo with some more aggressive up tempo excursions like in awesome I Remember That Fall, one of my personal favorites on this little record. Vocals are nice, remind me at times of Greg from Bouncing Souls, some music too. The songs are really written nice with some memorable melodies that you catch yourself humming or whistling afterwards not even realizing that this is from this little release. Lyrics are personal and songs like Cigarettes & Therapy or maybe Societal Lobotomy are about to win you over. Good punk rock.
KRAYKULLA-WEBZINE 