Angry Youth Elite are coming from Ruhr area, Germany. These guys are back with their second album, called ‘All Riot’ and it contains eleven songs. Music on this album is punk rock, melodic punk mainly in mid tempo, but also some faster skate punk songs reminding me a lot of Millencolin, not only in vocal lines, but also choruses and songwriting style. That in no way doesn’t mean that these guys are copy of some other known band, but quite the contrary, they are an example how to write great melodic punk songs. Lyrics deal with social injustice, but also themes like being homeless, dealing with survival in this world and age, handling addiction and through personal lyrics to which any of us listeners punks can relate to. My personal favorites on this one are: ‘Smile Goodbye’, ‘DIY’, ‘Give It Up’ with reggae songwriting thrown in and ‘Don’t Bring Me Down’. This album is a must, for you if you love bands like Pennywise and Bad Religion, but leaning more on European school of melodic punk like Millencolin and No Fun At All. Great band and excellent record indeed!
Time for a band from the East to grace the pages of this webzine, namely Lirivial from Belarus. I am usually not an avid fan of instrumental records, but this one is actually good listening choice. There are 13 instrumental songs on this record and this one is not boring to listen to. If I must compare it to something it would be fast melodic hardcore punk with some classical , yes you read it right, musical influences. There are also keyboard, some post punk, folk and electronica influences in couple of the songs. All that makes this album fresh and interesting listening stuff. I must admit that on this album vocals are not missing in the big picture at all. On most of the songs guitar’s melodic lines take role of leading vocals so guitar speaks to us in its voice in a way, like in great songs called ‘Dollar And Tequila’, also ‘Live To The Textbook’ and ‘Soldier And Bridge’ you should check out and find your favorites. I can also hear some heavy metal influences, power and melodic metal, but the music is still simple and great punk rock, rich in sound and songwriting. I don’t really know, but I think this is a one man entity/project as I can find on the Internet. This album flows by you making you somehow feel good, although main theme of the album is somehow melancholic and atmospheric, kinda almost sad, but adding enough hope to keep the flame burning. Good one if you are looking for something different.
Schnogge are coming from Burkardroth, Germany and they play mixture of pop punk and melodic punk/skate punk. There are ten songs on this little beauty of an album. The album starts as atmospheric beautiful intro with acoustic and keys turning into full blooded melodic punk anthem called ‘Antisocial’. What immediately falls to my ears is that vocals have a rougher edge but with guitar melody do mix up really great and belong to the overall picture perfectly. This song, as many on this album has catchy and great sing along chorus with nice backing vocal harmonies. Lyrics on this album deal with antisocial attitudes, humanity, hipsters, punk, fun and a bit of humor. There are also faster songs like ‘Story About Humanity’, sounding great with pop punk influences exploding all over the place. The music of this album brings back smile on your face on a bright and sunny warm day, making you wish that you are on some beach stage, possibly at Punk Rock Holiday enjoying your melon ball and this band in the easy afternoon hours. Songs that I must highlight from this album are also ‘Fuck You’, ‘Love The Hipster’ and ‘What Is Punk’ being my personal somehow favorites, but album as a whole is great pop punk/melodic punk release sure to win you over.
KRAYKULLA-WEBZINE 