Category Archives: Reviews

(record review)Return of noise to Osijek, HARVO JAY-Sok od Agonije

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Besides having great melodic punk bands that somehow became trademark for that Croatian city, Osijek was also having a strong noise scene in the 90-ies with bands like Why Stakla and Cog coming to mind. The last ten years it kinda watered down and there are rare, if any new bands coming from that city which is kinda sad.

But, there is not all lost for their scene, at least there is one new(er) band and this is their new record. HARVO JAY released their debut album, after one ep and one live ep and there are 9 songs of as they say meth rock with a lot of noise influences. This music is usually not my cup of tea, and as a kid lets say 15-20 years ago, I would only laugh with contempt at such bands but nowadays I listened to this album and it is okay to hear. There are couple of songs that were not so good because they all sounded kinda mellow and boring but the majority of the songs have enough noise energy to keep them good and interesting to listen to. I love that the lyrics are all in Croatian language, not many bands does that nowadays. This is definitely not music for listening on everyday basis, but it is alright if I spin this record from time to time. The album is free to download and support the guys and hear the record, drop them also some nice words and dime.

6,5/10

https://harvojay.bandcamp.com/album/sok-od-agonije

 

(record review)Dutch melodic punksters Ink Bomb new e.p. Swim

Ink Bomb is a melodic punk hardcore band coming from Nijmegen(Netherlands). Their new e.p.contains 4 songs of melodic punkrock done with heart and soul and emotion.

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The lyrics are in English and I dont have lyric sheet but as I understand they are personal, emotional heartfelt lyrics with a slight political touch thrown in. The music is not so fast paced with fast drumming, although there are some faster paced songs. This is smart punkrock with head and tails and everything on this e.p.belongs right where it should be. What I like most on the record are the vocals, maybe it is just me, but I hear 80-ies synth pop bands, mainly Depeche Mode in the vocals of this band. I am sure it is just me, but I listened to this record at least four times in a row and that was the way I heard it.

Top songs on this e.p.for me are The Bleachers for which there is a video already featured on the pages of this zine and my personal favourite song is Heavy Crosses which I listened on repeat many times. To be sure, this is nothing new, nothing revolutionary, but it is punkrock with heart and soul and such bands will always have an impact on me.

8/10

https://www.facebook.com/inkbombnl/

 

Some movies I have watched lately!

There are couple of movies I have seen lately and I would like to write something about them, whether they were good and fun to watch or bad.

First off, THE HOUSES OCTOBER BUILT 2 was a giant surprise that it came out at all, because I remember the first one not being so good, rather boring stuff, and they made a sequel.

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In this one, the girl that I guess survived the first one and the movie documentary crew travel through America visiting hunted scary attractions and hayrides looking for some which could scare them so two thirds of the movie represent some kind of weird commercial for haunted fair attractions across the USA. The last third of the movie turns into some kind of mindfuck psychological horror or at least it tries to be and in the end leaves you with bitter taste in your mouth not really knowing why or what happened to the characters. This one was a shot in the blank space and it is definitely not worth your time.

Going to the next one, or the next two to be precise. as I watched both JOHN WICK movies back to back. Many call these movies mindless shootout , nothing intellectually worth, but I guess they didnt make them to be mentally challenging, on the contrary, they made them to be action packed fun flicks for no brain pressure release fun watching.

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In the first one, John Wick(Keanu Reeves) is a retired mafia super hitman, whose wife Helen just died of cancer and left him a dog as a last token of her love?! and to have someone with whom he can share his grief. While one day shopping for fuel, the son of Russian mobster sees his Mustang car, decides it must be his, breaks into Johns house, steals the car and murders his dog. Unfortunately for the whole Russian mob organization in town, John Wick decides to move out of retirement and settle the score. This one has a pretty excessive bodycount and attractive action scenes that kept me attracted to the screen for the whole duration of the movie, so I really loved the first movie.

As for the second, tentatively called Chapter Two, the story continues in the same way. Upon hearing that he went out of retirement to settle the score in the first movie, Italian mafia boss burdens John with a hard task, but the one he must do, in order to stay alive and retire out of the previous life once more. Not all goes according to the plan, so once more there is bloodshed and general shootout all through the movie, so it is very similar to the first one, the only difference is that this time it went international in the story, not only in one town like in the first movie.

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In my opinion, the first one was somehow better. I cant really tell why, because in the second one, the bodycount is bigger, the action scenes are even more attractive but it just somehow didnt work for me.

Anyway, I am glad to see Keanu Reeves doing again what he did best in the past and that is making great action movies. I kinda missed him since the Matrix glory days.

 

 

Now is the time for some Asian, to be precise Korean flick. AGE OF SHADOWS is a Korean movie set in 1920-ies when Japan Empire occupied Korea and small band of resistance fighters played cats and mouse game trying to outwit and do some serious damage to the Japanese, who also had Korean collaboration police on their side.

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As it usually goes in those movies, the story is action packed and tense, but what fascinates me the most are the characters. The characters in such movies are so greatly written that they are usually so to say larger than life and you actually feel regret and happines and sympathize with them during the movie. If you expect action blockbuster here, dont watch this one, because, while it has many action scenes, this one is in its core spy drama movie. This movie was great and it only proves how much Korean film industry rose in the scene and somehow became I would dare say leading force in the Asian movie theatre with due respect to Chinese and Japanese movie industry. Anyway, if you are interested and like such movies, see Age of Shadows, you wont regret it!