Downstater are hailing from Quebec City, Canada and this is their debut full length that came out with People of Punk Rock Records. This one contains ten songs. What do we get here? We get dose of melodic punk/skate punk with nineties influences, like it was played back in the days reminding me of all those bands that I grew up with. This album is emotional, dramatic, intense and melancholic, but also grandiose in richness of melody, backing vocal harmonies and superb songwriting. From the excellent opener ‘Thanks For Nothing’ which grinds everything in its path with contagious melody and superb chorus, this record is a rollercoaster of emotion, goosebumps and above all great excellent punk rock like we are used to from bands in Canadian scene. Musicianship is tight and if I must compare this band to some other bands it would be a mixture of No Use For A Name and Strung Out, being technical yet in your face punk rock at the same time, even with I dare say pop punk sensibility. Vocals are not too mellow or snotty at all, they are strong but fit in like butter on fine bread. It is very hard for me to choose favorites between these ten songs, because they are all excellent, but I will try. They are: ‘Call Me When You’re Dead’, ‘Let You Down’ and ‘Cruelest Defeats’ along with above mentioned song. I love this band and album!
I must admit that I have never heard of Burn Unit prior to this demo. These guys are hailing from Fresno, California and this is their three song demo, short but sweet. Lyrics deal with gap between the expectations of others and real you, losing friends, betrayal, losing and gaining hope, so they are personal but done in a hardcore way, the way I love it for three decades now. Music is pretty brutal, mixture of hardcore with street punk roots and modern beatdown influenced hardcore. Song ‘False Self’ reminded me of European hardcore bands like Ryker’s, Right Direction and Backfire!, meaning all those nineties hardcore bands that I still love and much respect. Vocals are deep brutal but you can understand most of what is being sung about so that is another plus for this band. Besides punk roots, couple of metallic guitar work influences are more than obvious, especially in a song ‘Burn’, which reminded me of 25TaLife in some way, maybe it is just me, not vocally, only musically, having metallic verses, slower and thundering, and street punk chorus made for stage diving and singing along to. If you are into street wise hardcore, Burn Unit is the one to check out!
Many of you who read this webzine will know already that I love horror in movies, as well in literature. Graham Masterton is besides King, John Saul, James Herbert and Dean Koontz one of my favorite horror authors. I just finished another one of his books and it is an awesome read about Japanese demon Tengu, the strongest of Japanese demons and crazy secret organization bent on revenge for Hiroshima and Nagasaki, trying to bring havoc with super soldiers possessed by this demon and couple of people trying to stop them before it is too late. The book is a mixture of body horror, maniacally murdering mayhem and gore with classic intense political thriller with horror elements. I love Masterton’s writing, how his novels are quick and fluid and easy to read, but at the same time intense and hard to let go once you start to read them. I especially love bleak and dark atmosphere that goes throughout this book and the ending is done very well. I recommend this one although it is not one of his top three books.
KRAYKULLA-WEBZINE 