I witnessed Pulley playing their set live back in 2019 at Punk Rock Holiday when they headlined Monday and it was a disaster, at least in my opinion. Singer Scott Radinsky was just too drunk and all around him every song just fell apart, although music was not so bad, he spoiled everything for me, when I wanted to see one of the bands I so love since the nineties and their Epitaph releases. Anyway, this is their first full length album with new material after a long time and these twelve songs are a treat for every nineties skate/melodic punk fan out there. Songs are written great, Scott´s vocals sound better than ever along with backing vocal harmonies and superb melodies. In all, this album somehow evokes an atmosphere and vibe of melancholy and mixture of happiness and sadness at the same time. Maybe it is only me, maybe I remember all of the times and people that are gone now, maybe something else. But, it is a good record to listen to, my personal favorites are Wake Up, Sad Song, Golden Life. Just can´t wait to hear the new material live. Hope their set will be better next time I see them play live.
It has been couple of months since this opus came out, but like they say in these Northern parts of Croatia, it is never too late for great music eh? Verikalpa are hailing from Finland and this is their third full length opus. Members of Verikalpa are playing or have been playing in Catamenia, Obsessive Art, Against All and many other, so they know how to make quality metal and write great songs. This one contains 11 songs of ‘troll beer drenched metal’ like Verikalpa say for themselves. It is basically a mixture of melodic black metal and folk metal with some death metal influenced parts here and there, sounding a bit like early Finntroll in couple of songs, but not polka metal, rather more straightforward metal, we can safely say that Verikalpa lean more on metal side of things than on folk. There are some harmonica and keyboard parts that are folk metal passages, but guitars are more often and they create such beautiful melancholic yet aggressive atmosphere and melody, like only Finnish bands can. Songs are all in Finnish, so I don´t understand a word but the music speaks for itself. Riitti, Tunturihauta, Verikauhu are my personal favorites on this opus, but I am glad that I discovered this band because I love the music they create.
Zerfall are hailing from Italy and it is a relatively new band, but the members have served in the scene in entities such as Ras Algethi or Enoch and this is the new opus and it contains seven longer songs. Music of Zerfall can be described as blackened doom death metal with thundering distorted bass, many slower rolling drums parts of the songs and some post black metal influences. Special mention goes to keyboard work which is awesome, creating such bleak and horror atmosphere like in my personal favorite Symmetric Caustic Waves, which, although it is an instrumental is an atmospheric masterpiece. Listening to it I feel like walking through the night time street with that uneasy feeling that someone is watching you from the shadows. Vocal lines on this album belong more into death metal side of things being growled with occasional scream here and there. Songs like Neutron Star Company(NOVA) or Zeitgeist Vernichtung are sure to become your personal favorites. This is a superb blackened doom death opus.
KRAYKULLA-WEBZINE 