It is time for horrorpunk to grace the pages of this zine again. It has been four years since Calabrese, one of my favorite horrorpunk bands released last album called Lust For Sacrilege. That album marked a bit darker and grittier, heavier side of things for the three brothers of whom this band consists.
The new record contains 11 songs. The music is horrorpunk in basic, but you won˙t find here no third rate Fits rehash, but something original, a unique sound that Calabrese developed through the years of existence. Old songwriting craftship is still here, with songs like He Who Flees The Light or Demonspitter sounding old school Calabrese with a bit of noise and nervousness thrown in the song structures. The other thing that I love about them how they developed dark and somehow almost metal and gothic influences in the slower songs like King Prowler for example making the record interesting and diverse. The interesting and original thing is also that they recorded videos for all the songs from this record, so check em out on YouTube in the order as the record songs go. Maybe some songs are not anthemic as the old ones like Pleasures Of Evil being for me one of the best on the album combining harsh darkness with melodic chorus. Maleficis Visibilis serves as a kind of intro for malicious things to come hehe with synth melodic being done reminding me of all the favorite 80-ies horror flicks. Bobby and Jimmy interplay excellently with their vocal lines creating a interwoven net of haunted melodies. The last third of the album climaxes in fantastic songs like All The Devils In Hell and superb End Of Time At The Gates Of Hell. This is by far the most complex and most diverse Calabrese record and it is fantastic!
Foxhall Stacks is a punkrock supergroup, although I hate that word. Its members are former or active members of bands like Jawbox, Government Issue, Bad Religion…and this is their debut album with Snappy Little Tunes. The veterans from Washington DC released 10 beautiful songs of a mixture of pop, punkrock, emo and indie with nice melodies, catchy choruses, songs to make you smile and make you better if you had a rough day like I did today. The songs on this record are somehow an amalgamation and vision of all the bands members play or have played in with emotion, guts, grit and melody. Not all songs are top, but there are more great songs than average songs. Me personally find The Reckoning, The Old Me, Top Of The Pops somehow the best with most of the other songs being awesome too apart from some too rockish songs like Do It Yesterday. This is a good band.
PCT Musique is a small punkrock label dedicated to promoting European and Canadian punk bands and delivering great underground music to us, hordes thirsty for great punk and creating underground network of cooperation. This time, they bring us the new record by punk band from Toulouse, France Todo Match. This record contains 10 songs. The music of Todo Match is a mixture between melodic side of punkrock, indie, pop punk and I can even hear more raw garage punk influence in some song structures. The lyrics are in English and I am really glad this band has something to say like against rich getting rich on the backs of poor(Rebellious Beat), pedophile priests(God Bye), unity in fight(Ignition), religion and death(Under The Stone). What I like about this band is them having a bit unconventional melodies and different songs varied from the faster punk to some mid tempo and slower bits remaining interesting all the time. The title song is pumping pure blooded punkrock but for me one of the absolute highlights of the record is A Perfect Democracy, with super lyrics and great fast energetic punk rythm. The best song on this record is Welcome To Wall Street City, filthy punk hymn against the broker system and all that corporate stocking crap going on there. Besides these songs that are highlights for me, you will have to discover the rest for yourself. Go get this one.