For those who don´t know The 1984 Draft are from Dayton, Ohio and I listened and reviewed their new record for this webzine.
Led by the mastermind songwriter Joe Anderl, these guys combine the sensitivity of pop punk and melodic punkrock with some darker and I dare say romantic undertones in their songs. The album contains 10 excellent songs for contemplating and at the same time enjoying the melodic riffs with beautiful vocal lines. The singing is nice and it suits perfectly into this band˙s opus. As I understood while listening, the lyrics are personal and easy to relate to. If I must compare the band to someone it would be like The Bouncing Souls meeting Morrissey and making an album worth of great songs. As for me, my personal favorite songs on this record are “Miss Ohio”, “Lutheran Heat” and above all “Lisbon Falls”. If you are fan of elaborate and melodic, also intelligent punkrock, check out this records because you won´t be sorry!
France gave many excellent bands and records in the history of its scene, this band is one who will yet make history. Taiwan Balek are melodic hardcore punk band from Toulon, France and I listened and reviewed their new record for this webzine.
The record contains 6 songs of melodic and highly energetic hardcore punk. “No Arms, No Candles” is a fast 90-ies reminding song, with great harmonic melodies. “At Morning” and “Daisy” offer excellent mix of faster melodic parts mixed with atmospheric emotional parts in between. For me, the best song on this record is No Use For A Name sounding “Digital Soul”, punkrock song that had a strong impact on me as a listener being an anthem that I wished I wrote. “Minx” and “Big Box” continue in the song structure as the first third of the record and finish it leaving you wanting for more. That means, good record! Not something new, not something unheard of, but hey, it´s melodic punk and it˙s good, so get it and give it a chance or two!
Time for something harder to grace the pages of this zine, namely the review of the new e.p. by Probation If you are a fan of harder and more dirtier side of hardcore punk you came to the right place. The record is out on mighty Wtf Records. Read on!
Hailing from Limburg Noord area, these Dutch trio plays a dirty mixture of hardcore, sludge and some d-beat thrown in for good measure. This record contains 6 tracks of bleak despair, hatred, autoirony garnished with black humour and sarcasm. The titles like “Life Sucks, Kill Yourself”, “Imperial Needle” or the title track imagine the lyrical themes well, don˙t they? The songs are mainly fast paced with almost crusty old school d-beat sound turned into modern hardcore punk but retaining that dirty and greasy vibe in the production and also easily changing pace into lower downtuned sludge core stuff. For me the best song on this record is “Wrong Answer”. This record is one more proof of greatness and versity of European hardcore punk scene.
KRAYKULLA-WEBZINE 