Category Archives: Reviews

Reviews, Various

(review)Hi! Spencer-Nicht raus, aber weiter(Uncle M Music)

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Hi! Spencer from Osnabruck, Germany quickly rose to become force to reckon with considering melodic punk with indie and noise influences. I was lucky to listen and review their brand new album that comes out via Uncle M Music for our zine.

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There are 11 songs on this record. The music of Hi! Spencer is hard to categorize because the guys managed to create their trademark sound with fresh pop punk melodies topped with darker sounding riffs and melancholic yet hopeful choruses. The lyrics to the songs are in German language, but I understand and speak German so it was no problem for me to understand that the lyrics are mostly personal dealing with fighting and confronting your own personal demons and coping and having hope in today` s fast and sometimes merciless world. It is also about love and friendship and the things we should hold dear in our hearts and I am still warm around my heart when I write these lines, because I love this music, I love this album and the music such as this remind me why I still do this and why I still believe and support this scene after all these years. It is hard to choose, but for me the best songs on this record are: Wo immer Du bist, the title song and Richtung Norden.

8,5/10

https://www.facebook.com/hispencerhi/

https://www.facebook.com/uncle.m.music/

 

 

Reviews, Various

(book)James Herbert-48

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Do you love your horror in written form? I sure do! I love the movies, the tv series, horrorpunk but the best for me are still horror short stories and novels. The late legendary James Herbert happens to be one of my favorite horror writers of all time, so I read his books with joy and fear.

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48 is one of Herbert´s more sf and fantasy and less horror novels. As the title implies the story takes place in 1948. At the end of Second World War, defeated Reich in its death throes shot rockets with deadly virus and the whole world became ravaged place. In empty London, full of corpses, lunatic survivors, American pilot Hoke tries to survive and escape the army of British nazi blackshirts who want his blood to make an andtidote to the sickness. Sounds familiar? Richard Matheson´s I Am Legend first came to mind with some segments of this story, but insted vampires, here we have lunatic nazi soldiers. But, there is enough of action, excitement and breathtaking turning of pages to make this one interesting novel. It is not one of my favorite Herbert´s books that I read, by far not, but it is a decent one to make your winter evening great reading. The ending is okay, the story evolves nicely page by page, so worth your reading, but if you would love to check some of Herbert´s stuff, better read couple of his better works before this one.

Reviews, Various

(review)Nathan Gray-Live in Wiesbaden/Iserlohn(End Hits Records)

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Nathan Gray is better known to some people as the singer of BoySetsFire. He is also solo musician and artist and as a celebration of his solo music and the gift to fans, he recorded a double live record which I listened and reviewed for our zine.

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2018.was the year of many acoustic punk releases, some better, some not so good. My personal taste is a bit harder steming from hardcore punk and I am not such an avid fan of acoustic punk records, but this one is a beautiful record. It was recorded on Gray˙s sold out solo tour on two beautiful locations in Germany.  The record contains two gigs, the setlist being made of Nathan˙s solo record songs, but also BoySetsFire songs that you rarely or ever hear played live by that band. It is interesting how the same songs on two locations can sound different but raise goosebumps on your skin in both gigs. What is lost in live hardcore punk records nowadays is the talking between the songs and explaining the meaning of the songs and the ideas and philosophy behind the songs and hardcore movement itself. This record has Nathan talking and explaining the meaning of the songs for him and you can feel the vibe all over this record behind the melody, behind the lyrics, that there is something more in our music, in our scene, in our hardcore punk philosophy than mere importance of music. There is also the message, the lifestyle and hope and respect and I love it. Every single day, every single song, every single second.

9/10

https://www.facebook.com/nathangraymusic/

https://www.facebook.com/EndHitsRecords/