Here is one band from far away scene, namely Last Dayz from Indonesia. This is a three song demo featuring metallic hardcore with some deathcore and hardcore punk influences. Vocals are brutal and shouted like they should be for this pretty brutal music with some screaming backing vocal harmonies. Production of these demo songs is decent, everything hits you right in the face. Last Dayz play what we called new school hardcore in the nineties, meaning hardcore with lots of chugga chugga guitar work, double bass drumming and even thrash metal groove influences thrown in like in ‘Body Count’. You also get lyrics which are pretty dark and apocalyptic dealing with survival in world that goes down told from personal point of view and are in order aligned with aggressive and pretty brutal music being played here. Reminds me of all those H8000 Belgian hardcore school bands back in the nineties, not really my cup of tea, too metalized and too little hardcore punk. But, here is demo that contains great musicianship, brutal songs and I wish all the best to Last Dayz, hopefully an EP or full length in the future.
The Decline are from Australia and they were already featured on the pages of this webzine, This is their brand new album I am listening, courtesy of Pee Records. In fact this is the new full length album, but it is kind of compilation. Why? Because this beauty features 17 songs and on it you can find all the singles recorded during the pandemic and lockdown, It also contains fan favorites from seven inch singles, and also material from splits and compilations plus new single excellent ‘Hillsong Of The Damned’. Anyone who listened to The Decline know what can expect, that is awesome melodic punk done in old school nineties style without much philosophy but with superb conviction, excellent melodies and harmonies, fast skate punk rock but also mid tempo gentle punk rock anthems. Vocals are story for themselves. They are sooo sweet and so perfect that I am jealous of this band that I never had a band in which I could sing so beautiful. Backing vocal harmonies are also superb plus guitar hooks, catchy riffs, harsh where they need to be, melodic where they need to be, meaning all the time. My personal favorites are ‘Kenneth’, ‘Hillsong Of The Damned’, ‘Year Of The Crow’, ‘Fast Food’ and ‘The Werewolf Of Fever Swamp’ sounding awesome like Teenage Bottlerocket. Fast songs with lots of irony and humor cleverly mix with more emotional punk rock anthems. This band reminds me a lot of one of my favorite bands being No Use For A Name with song structures and way they play their music, there is a NUFAN cover on this record too! So, if you are into great melodic punk rock check out this band and have fun like I did!
Balek Panic are coming from Paris, France and this is their new release containing 6 songs of excellent fast and intense melodic punk rock, skate punk or melodic hardcore punk if you like it that way. Music is fast and reminds a lot of nineties punk from California on which I grew up listening. Lyrics are personal with a touch of humor in it like in ‘Tourism Is terrorism’. Vocals are nice, neither too mellow nor too harsh, just as you need it for this kind of punk rock. Melodies are beautiful and every harmony and backing vocals fit perfectly to the song part it was meant to. My favorites are ‘Dreams’, ‘Stuck on the same day’ and ‘Manipulator’ being somehow my highlights of this EP. I would like to see this band play live and would love a full length some time in the future.
KRAYKULLA-WEBZINE 