US black metal scene has always been great, thriving with exciting and interesting bands and projects delivering fantastic records. Morke are hailing from Minnesota and this entity is in fact a brainchild of one Eric Wing. This is Morke´s third full length opus since 2016 and it contains 10 songs. The music of Morke is epic and atmospheric melodic black metal. It has just right amount of aggression where needed, with blast beats, ice cold riffs and fast all out aural attack. But, it also delivers beautiful melancholic melodies, catchy guitar hooks and memorable moments of pure black metal joy reminding me why this is most emotional music there is. Add to that calmer, acoustic almost touchable atmospheric passages and excellent vocals that are neither too screaming nor too understandable, you get perfect black metal album. Songs are a bit longer but never get boring, although this album marks well more than one hour long. My personal favorites: Intrusions, Isolation.
I met the guys from KRANG at Punk Rock Holiday when we did an interview for this webzine and also reviewed their last record which was fantastic. This band is coming from Czech Republic and play hardcore punk, leaning enough in hardcore to be loved by hardcore kids and also they are enough melodic to be loved by fans of more melodic skatepunk side of things. I witnessed their gig at the same festival and it was an energy bomb. So, this record is finally out and I love it. There are 12 songs on this one just a little above twenty minutes time. I dare say this is the best bunch of songs provided by this band so far. Lyrics are serious, deal with injustice, situation in the world, but somehow from personal side of things to which anyone can relate to. What I also love about this band is that they grew up on same movies as I did and every one of their records has a song of couple about that. On this one is my personal favorite Marion Cobretti hehe. Besides that song, my personal highlights are Time Is Ticking, title song, Melt All The Guns and Homeless Man. Vocals are great, neither too harsh nor too snotty or mellow, just the way they should be. So, go grab this one, besides new Chaser, this is the best punk rock record this year.
No one can take away The Offspring´s influence on punk rock music with their classic trilogy of Smash, Ixnay and Americana albums. But, they released more albums than those three, each of them had decent bunch of songs, but also each of them never was great album in its entirety. This is long awaited new album and new music. What to say? There are 14 songs on this one. The story repeats itself. There are some good ones, like This Is Not Utopia, The Opioid Diaries or Hassan Chop. But, there are couple of horrible songs like the title track, I am sorry but I just can´t stand this one or We Never Have Sex Anymore. Was this one trying to play similar to Mad Caddies or what? Also there are couple of fillers on this one, like totally unnecessary In The Hall Of The Mountain King. Rendition of Gone Away is a great pop ballad, but not fitting to punk rock album. Unfortunately, this record has more bad than good songs.
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