Veterans Cypress Hill are back with their new, tenth album. These hardcore hip hop legends cooperated in creating music with various musicians from hardcore scene, like Sen Dog with Biohazard, Powerflo, to mention a few, so much respect to being kinda part of both scenes and creating great music. What do we get on this new record? Well, we get new set of songs somehow creating darkened vibe to the whole album, speaking of violence, death, streets and every day life and hardships one can endure and must endure to survive. There is no violence worshipping or gang worshipping lyrics on this one, rather speaking their voices as witnesses to the shit they had to see and make through to get where they are now. There are also couple of songs about ganja and smoking weed like Open Ya Mind or Come With Me, but my personal favorite is Bye Bye being somehow the darkest song on the album, both lyrically and musically. The usage of samples and loops is superb, so is songwriting and lyrics. Also, songs that I must mention as being somehow highlights are Break Of Dawn and The Ride. Great album by these legends.
Slovenian hardcore heavyweights Reach A.D. are in no way strangers to this zine. They were formerly known as Reach and they delivered couple of fine hardcore releases and energetic gigs, especially here hailing from Pomurje region of Slovenia. Well, after couple of line-up changes they decided that a new era is upon us and changed name to Reach A.D. and continued soldiering on with this new e.p. This one features four songs and music of Reach A.D. leans more into metallic side of hardcore at the same time never forgetting their streetcore roots. If I must compare it to some bands, it would be Earth Crisis nineties era and also all those Belgian H8000 nineties hardcore bands. That means aggressive but not necessary fast songs, angry vocals, great gang backing vocals, guitar work which is awesome and nicely done lyrics about fighting your inner demons, hypocrisy in the scene, quasi toughness and fakes, ignorance and hatred and all other merry themes. I personally think that this e.p. is by far the best release Reach has ever done and if this is a indicator how new era of this band will sound like, I am damn looking forward to it!
Možda kasnim, ali bolje ikad no nikad. Nisam do sada pročitao ovu knjigu, a pošto mi je u zadnje vrijeme pala nekako u pandže, uzeo sam si vremena da to ispravim. No, nekako mi se nije dopalo sve skupa, ostavilo mi je slatko kiseli okus u ustima. Ramonesi su bend koje svi vole, od zadrtijih punksa koji ne fermaju nijedan drugi stil ekstremne muzike i undergrounda osim punka, preko metalaca, pa i takozvane normalne ekipe koja se ne smatra dijelom nikakve subkulture. U međuvremenu se majice Ramonesa mogu naći i u komercijalnim dućanima s tekstilom u šoping centrima i izgledalo mi je da se sjena ovog legendarnog benda jako prostituirala time. No, nakon što sam pročitao ovu knjigu, ispada da su Ramonesi uvijek bili gladni slave i uspjeha i patili na neki način što nisu nikada postigli razinu prodanih ploča kao mlađi bendovi tipa Green Day i Offspring koji su navodili Ramonese kao uzore i inspiraciju. Ova knjiga govori cijelu priču o bendu od početaka do kraja, uz sve trzavice, svađe, opsesivno kompulzivne poremećaje i smrti članova, uspjehe i padove. Ono što me smeta kod ove knjige je da previše skače s timelinea na timeline, od povijesti do sadašnjosti i prilično je neuredno i zbrda zdola napisana, iako ima pozamašan broj stranica. Možda je to zato što je loš prijevod što je bio slučaj i s biografijom Davea Grohla koju sam pročitao nedavno, pa zato više volim čitati takve knjige na engleskom jeziku. Nekada mi je toliko konfuzno bilo s nekim bezveznim intervjuima s članovima ekipe benda, da mi je bilo jako dosadno pročitati neke stvari i nekako sam jedva čekao da završim poneka poglavlja. Šteta, moglo je biti puno bolje.
KRAYKULLA-WEBZINE 