Category Archives: Reviews

(review) Talog – Karpatski Prijestolonasljednik/ Apoteoza Roda Neljudskoga

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Time for something from my home country scene, namely Croatian underground scene. Talog was one of the first interviews that I did for this zine back in 2015 with Kktz, individual who is keeping the scene flame burning for more than four decades now through his work in various punk, hardcore, crust, noise and black metal projects and bands. Talog is his one man dark ambient/dungeon synth entity and this is the new release containing two songs with titles in Croatian language. We are talking here about dungeon synth mixed with dark ambient and black ambient, minimalistic but very, very effective. Horror atmosphere and vibe that Talog reaches in its music is impressive. Karpatski Prijestolonasljednik (Heir of Carpathian Throne) starts ominous with such superb eerie melody that you as a listener feel like you are part of the wind blowing over Carpathian mountains at sunset turning into the night. That is at least what I felt while listening to this one. You can see Sun disappearing from cold and sharp teeth of the mountains descending all wild and beautiful Carpathia into blessed night. Pure vampiric melancholy and evil. We the people of Balkans know a lot about vampiric lore around here, so this music fits perfectly to our darkened hearts. Second opus, Apoteoza Roda Neljudskoga (Apotheosis of Inhuman Kind) continues where its predecessor left off, delivering darkness and you almost sink into liquid darkness, the one you can feel while listening to this one. I must say that Talog delivered another masterpiece of darkness.

https://talog.bandcamp.com/album/karpatski-prijestolonasljednik-i-apoteoza-roda-neljudskoga

(review) Accident – Hasten Through Decay

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New Accident is out now! This band from Zagreb, Croatia is no stranger in this zine because I already did an interview with them a while ago and couple of reviews.

After a pause and some line-up changes within the band they area back with eight songs in with lyrics in English language. The music is still ferocious, fast, no holds barred hardcore punk with dual vocals, courtesy of Lea and Bart. I love Accident because their music reminds me a lot of old school hardcore punk bands that I listened and watched live a lot when I way younger back in the nineties, namely Verbalni delikt, Nula, DHB, Građani drugog reda, Optička varka, Bad Justice, Radikalna promjena and others. Yet, Accident carries that old school flame but also retains firmly with both feet in this century with good lyrics, political and survival lyrics through prism of looking through person´s own eyes. This is high energy well played, angry hardcore punk with melody thrown smartly in the song structures here and there, the way it should be done, so go listen this one and support your scene and hardcore cause worldwide! My personal favorites: Fall For It, A.T.D., For Free.

https://accident.bandcamp.com/

(review) Fallstar – Sunbreather (Facedown Records)

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Fallstar are coming from Portland and they have a new record with Facedown Records. This record offers 11 songs of interesting and different modern approach to hardcore. The traditionalist in me, grown up in the nineties hardcore scene with nod to youth crew hardcore bands of eighties would discard this record upon first listening. But, hey, I am 43 years old now and take things differently in music.

Fallstar have a pretty original approach to songwriting, cleverly mixing hardcore punk, post hardcore, spacy dreamy vibes, electronics, pop punk and even metalcore in some song parts making one original and soundscape which will take you somewhere to some different dimension while listening to this record. My personal favorites are Cloud Chamber, Waiting and the title song. If you love your hardcore done a bit differently, with lots of melody and intensity at the same time, this record is the right one for you. Do not be scared to check out different things within hardcore scene, diversity makes us strong, we are a small scene in the beginning so there is no need for elitism and quarrels. Support the cause worldwide.