Reviews

(review) Agastopia – ‘Melt Down’

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Agastopia are hailing from Bulgaria and this is their new release containing nine songs. The music on this album is varied and if I must describe it would be melodic hardcore punk with some groove parts and almost alternative indie rock parts but enough harsh to keep your hardcore heart beating for listening the music of Agastopia. Like grunge influences meet hardcore punk and skate punk. Lyrics are personal and deal with death, facing your inner demons. aggression, being empty inside, depression, jealousy, suicide and other themes from very personal angle of being. There are couple of faster more straightforward punk songs like excellent ‘Dead’. Vocals vary from angry shouting to more melodic clean singing and fit just perfectly to the songs along with backing vocals. My personal favorites are ‘Dead’, ‘Terrified’ and ‘Just Do It’. This is not your straightforward hardcore record but it is a great music if you open your mind and ears to a bit different music style and quite original if I can admit.

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(movie – horror) Insidious The Red Door(2023.)

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Konačno smo dočekali i taj peti nastavak Insidious franšize. Film je režirao Patrick Wilson, čiji je ovo redateljski debut, a također tumači glavnu ulogu u svakom nastavku franšize. Ovaj peti nastavak se direktno nastavlja na događaje iz drugog dijela iz 2013.

Obitelj Lambert zatražila je hipnozu kojom će zaboraviti sve strašno što im se događalo i nevolje s astralnim projekcijama i odlaske u The Further gdje su ih proganjale duhovi i kreature. Sada, devet godina kasnije roditelji su razvedeni, a Josh pokušava uspostaviti ponovo vezu s otuđenim sinom Daltonom kad ovaj krene na fakultet. No, zatomljene uspomene i The Further ponovo udaraju, crvena vrata se otvaraju kako bi ih Lambertovi pokušali zatvoriti jednom zauvijek.

Iako je film produkcija Blumhousea i Jamesa Wana, za mene je razočarenje. Jednostavno je dosadan i nije u rangu nekih ranijih nastavaka, pogotovo legendarne jedinice. Ima ponešto jump/scare taktika plašenja, priča je jednostavno spora, tupava i dosadna, kao da je na brzinu napisana samo da film bude uopće snimljen. Gluma je tako-tako, Wilson je okej, Lin Shaye za ovo malo što se pojavljuje je odlična kao uvijek, ali ostali jednostavno nisu na razini zadatka. Likovi su preplastični, one frat house scene naporne i nepotrebne, kao i nedovoljno iskorišten prostor za bolji zaključak sage. Govorilo se da će Blumhouse raditi crossover Insidious i Sinister franšiza to bi po mom mišljenju bila bomba ako bi bilo dobro napravljeno. Ovako, ostaje gorak okus u ustima.

Zaključak: 6/10 sjekira. Za jedan komercijalni kino mainstream horror, film je ipak iznad prosjeka i bolji od mnogih drugih. Za ljubitelje ove franšize nisam siguran kako će se mišljenja podijeliti, to jest hoće li biti zadovoljnih fanova ili samo ravnodušnih kao što sam i ja. Ionako, prvi dio i originalnu jezu i ideju nije moguće bilo više ponoviti čak niti s kasnijim nastavcima, koji su neki samo solidni, pa je bilo iluzorno očekivati da će ova petica sada biti ono nešto ajnc a nije li?

Reviews

(review) Merit Maker – ‘Pick Ups And Put Downs’

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Not much is known about Merit Maker. These guys are hailing from Philadelphia and they play punk rock. This record contains ten songs of fast melodic hardcore punk, bringing back the nineties hardcore punk melodycore vision to this century. The songs are mainly fast, some of them leaning more into hardcore side of things, being not so much melodic but harsher, like for example ‘False Starts’. There is an occasional melancholic melody and atmosphere that goes through the songs like thread that binds them all together, but maybe it is only me that hears such stuff on this album. Bassist/vocalist Joe Stanton’s voice is just made for music like this one. The guy does not have your typical melodic voice but he can transform it also to ultra melodic like in Ramonescore influenced ‘Look Back’ which reminded me of Teenage Bottlerocket a little bit, that is good since TB is one of my favorite bands ever in the genre, not saying Merit Maker copied anyone, quite the contrary. Besides melancholy, I like some kind of untamed and wild punk rock energy that goes through this album and connects all the songs into one whole and makes this good record. My other personal highlights: ‘Sparks Ignite’, ‘Falling Out’, ‘Hang Ups’.

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