I once visited Požega, Croatia in December and it was magic. All those woods, a kind of sinister atmosphere, some invisible spirit of old in the air. Well, Kktz, veteran and legend of Croatian underground scene delivered another release with his black metal entity Tenebrositas. This time, significant news is that on this release Tenebrositas is a duo with Kktz handling vox. guitars and bass and O. handling drums and production. This is in fact one epic tale, song of just under fifteen minutes which indicates a bit of new path for Tenebrositas. It is still fast and raw almost hypnotic black metal with repetitive melody on guitar that kind of rolls through all song parts reappearing again and again. Atmosphere is dark yet fighting, victorious and persisting that dark hordes will prevail one day. Vocals are fantastic as always but this time Kktz tried some new things, by this I don’t mean clean singing but a bit more following guitar melody and melancholy with his shrieks. I love how the opus kind of slows down almost doomy towards the end but then wakes up to promise us another battle. This is in my opinion best Tenebrositas yet, I follow this entity for years in my zine. Recommendation.
Holland has a great tradition in street punk/OI bands and Bent ouf of Shape just released their new debut full length. What do we have here? There are 10 songs plus two bonus tracks on my copy and the music is just the way I love it. These guys play street punk/OI with some hardcore and street core influences but remaining more into street punk side of things than fast hardcore, meaning more songs in punk rock tempo being harsh yet melodic anthems. Lyrics are great, I can totally relate to my personal favorite Places to Go, there are some football oriented themes like Never Went Away, but also humor in Ozzy was a Skinhead hehe. Vocals are harsh, strong but totally fit to songs and you can understand what is being sung about and the singer can pull a melodic one but also hardcore shouting, so this is another plus for this great band. One other song I must absolutely mention is Good Old Memories with anthemic melody, fantastic lyrics and it gave me goosebumps on my skin and tears of pride in my eyes for last thirty years I am in this scene. Great album, have a listen.
Croatian hardcore scene is alive and well with so many excellent bands delivering their music. Shin are no strangers to the pages of this zine, this Zagreb based hardcore punk band was already featured in Kraykulla. This time, Shin graced us with their new record containing 8 songs. What to say? The band continue with their vision of melodic hardcore but I can say that the band never sounded more tighter and songwriting on this one is just fantastic. Fast and energetic melodic hardcore punk with superb interplay between singer Tea’s screamed vocals and more melodic singalong backing vocals. I must also say something about lyrics. The songs are in English language and lyrics of this band have always been great, smart written and mixture of personal battles and global battles on the big picture of things. This is probably best hardcore release of Croatian scene in 2022 and I heartily recommend this one. I also advice you to see one of their shows because they will blow you away live. My personal favorites: Set Sail, Hell Is Not That Cold, Days Years Decades.
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