Optimist come from Germany, Ruhr area and I listened to and reviewed their new record for our zine. The record is out now on BDHW Records.
This is the second album from the quintet who polished their unique aggressive sound to style between grindcore and hardcore. The record contains intro plus 10 songs. The lyrics are all in German language and as I understand German the lyrics are pretty bleak and without hope, apocalyptic and darkened. After the noisy and black intro which serves as an announcement of what it is to come, the song Das Ende Allen Seins is fast almost d-beat and grindcore song about the end of everything. There are some sludge and doomy influences for example in Wutrausch and again more fast straightforward aggressive songs like Lethargie. There are some Napalm Death like more metalic sounding slower songs like excellent title track or Rattengier. This music is not for everyone, but the fans of non happy, non merry go round smiling grind hardcore punk will adore this record and this band. I would love to check out this band live. Good one.
Disconnected Genius have their second full length album out and I listened and reviewed it for our zine.
These guys are hailing from Melbourne, Australia and this is their second album, following Dogs Chasing Fairy Tales. I must admit that this is a rather strange album title and Nirvikalpa means Without Alternative in sanskrit and Meow is a tribute to the singer Jamie˙s cat. The album contains 11 songs. The music of Disconnected Genius sounds basically like emotional punkrock with a lot of indie and alternative influences making it melodic, atmospheric and easy to the ear. Yet, don˙t be fooled, the strongest side of this band besides the music are definitely the lyrics. I like them because they are very smart and poetic, but they also kept smart undertones with the themes like politics and anti religious hypocrisy being themes in some songs. The singing is superb, the production is great, although I would like it to be a bit more dirty, gritty and raw and this band could be one of the new stars in the underground music scene sky. Favorite songs: About Nothing, Kings & Queens, Quietly Into The Night.
Italian underground scene gives new releases every single day, this time I listened and reviewed for this zine the new e.p. by Ishwara.
Ishwara are melodic hardcore/skatepunk band from Venice lagoon area, Italy. This new record contains 6 songs of melodic punk with hardcore influences just made for skating along or enjoying your sunny day. I love the fast, energetic melody and anthemic chorus of Can You Stop Me and these guys really can handle their instruments well. The musicianship is tight, the fast parts along with more mid tempo punkrock parts are nice interwined in the song structures, so there are absolutely no boring parts throughout the whole e.p. The lyrics of the songs are all in English language so you can easily follow what Ishwara are singing about. The lyric themes are more on the personal side of things. Also, I absolutely love the Stranger Things hommage on the cover of the record so, this e.p. is total hit. Check out another jewel in the crown of the mighty Italian underground hardcore punk scene.
KRAYKULLA-WEBZINE 