TBA started in 2015.and this is their new release and I listened to it and reviewed it for this webzine. If you are into melodic skatepunk, you came to the right place. Read the review here and get the album!
This band is based in Bucharest, Romania and I am pretty sure that it is the first Romanian melodic punk band that has been reviewed in this webzine. The record contains 6 melodic punk songs and although the music is mainly skatepunk, TBA are not shy using pop punk and doing it awesome like for example in “Note to Self”. The lyrics are in English language and as I read them while listening to the record, they are mainly personal with a slight between the lines touch of political. For me, the best song on the record is “Fuck it” being very fast and almost hardcore song but remaining melodic in basic lines and chorus. The vocals remind me a bit of Toby Morse from H2O especially in that song, but maybe that is only me, maybe they will not sound the same to you. This is old school melodic punkrock in the vein of the bands who did that in the 90-ies and I am really glad that I found one more band who are playing that style of music.
The Boston hardcore legends, Slapshot just released their new record via mighty Bridge Nine Records and I was eager to get my hands on this one and review it for this webzine.
I have been listening to Choke and company since I was a little hardcore kid, but believe it or not, I have seen them live at the gig just last year. I was blown away with the energy of their so called hate hardcore. This lineup is awesome and in my opinion one of the best lineups Slapshot ever had. This album contains 11 tracks of old school hardcore punk and the music is classic Slapshot for the 21st century. Musically it is fast and angry hardcore like we used to through the years and lyrically Choke again deals with his demons hehe. There are couple of surprises on the record like some guitar solos that worked awesome like in “Alone” which is in my personal opinion the best song on this record. Couple of other songs that are outstanding on this record are “I Got Your Number” and “One Last Chance”. This year has been kind to us so far with so many releases by so many excellent bands with awesome records and this one is for sure on of the candidates for the hardcore album of the year. I am not one of the guys who put their lists and polls at the end of each year, but I am sure that this album will be on many favorite lists.
In the sea of today´s bands on the great world underground punk scene it is hard to sound great and not to be anyone´s clone or people would tell you so. RELIANCE from Arizona, USA are one of the bands that sound excellent and energetic and I was lucky to listen to their new e.p. and review it for this webzine.
The e.p. contains 6 songs of high quality melodic punk hardcore skatepunk with nice mixture of slower punkrock songs and faster hardcore material just made for moshing at the gigs. The sound of the record is awesome and it was mixed by none other than legendary Bill Stevenson. The lyrics of the songs are a nice mix of personal and politically engaged songs, I don´t have lyricsheet so I had to listen hard hehe. Vocals are important for me in this kind of music, so I always listen carefully to the singers and this singer is just excellent, great voice sounds to me kinda like Jim Lindberg of Pennywise, and the backing vocals harmonies are nicely done, too! This is a really nice record. Top songs: “Broken Bottles”, “Crashing Down”.
KRAYKULLA-WEBZINE 