Our Croatian underground scene just thrives and pulsates with great bands and releases and I remember the first time I saw Drone Hunter from neighbouring Varaždin town. It was an open air gig organized by members of MC Miners from Varaždin behind one shopping mall with Đubrivo from Split and some other bands and I immediately fell in love with Drone Hunter´s music. Later on my band played a house gig in Varaždin in a garage of one guy´s home and it was fantastic. I interviewed the guys for this zine and reviewed earlier releases. Now, it is time for a new e.p. This one contains 5 songs. Although Drone Hunter are an instrumental band and I am not an avid fan of bands without vocals, this one is so good that vocals are not needed, the instruments do the talking. Songs are so well written that they tell a story. The music of Drone Hunter is hard to categorize, but I will try. It is a mixture of doom, stoner, sludge, hard rock and atmospheric post rock. But, what brought more joy to this heart are some faster, almost thrash metal parts of the songs Cabin Fever and The Dark Den Brought Me Here. Production on this e.p. is so strong and great, courtesy of Tompa at e-minor studio in Varaždin, this dude does great job with many bands from this scene here up north. Anyway, if you like atmosphere, harsh riffs, aggression, emotions, check out Drone Hunter and support the scene.
Time for another band from my home country scene, Croatia. Hailing from capitol, Zagreb, Inciter have been in the scene for more than twenty years now. This is their fifth full length opus and it contains 8 songs. When listening to Inciter, one can not escape comparisons to early Metallica glory days, when legends wrote albums to which I grew up to. Inciter plays a mixture of early, energetic eighties thrash metal, like it was played in Bay Area, but also add melody through NWOBHM influences with melodic solos, some anthemic guitar riffs and hooks, but also adding speed and energy of early hardcore punk influences here and there, thus creating one very excellent listening. Vocals also remind a lot of James Hetfield, not to copy the legend, but the color of voice and way of pronouncing words are similar with Metallica too. But, there are also some modern thrash and street wise influences in guitar grooves in couple of songs, thus remaining in this century with a respectful nod towards old masters. My personal favorites are Against The Grain, Better Off Dead, Dreamcatcher although it is an instrumental song, Until We Meet Again. This is a great album, go listen and support your local scene.
Time for one band from my country´s home scene, namely Old Night from Rijeka, Croatia. This is their third full length opus and although this band is not so long in the scene, members have played or are still playing in some of the Rijeka´s finest bands like Ashes You Leave, Castrum or Gorthaur´s Wrath. What do we have here? Instrumental intro plus seven songs of emotional, melodic doom metal. When I listen to the guitars I can´t avoid that the sound of guitars in songs like Sacred South remind me of Crowbar and vocals, mainly clean, remind me of Anathema in a way, but the music is much harder than Anathema, being melodic but at times harsh. Vocal lines and guitar melodies are fantastic with couple of death doom growls here and there thrown in for good measure. Lyrics deal with fantasy but if you read between the lines, feels and emotions can be transcribed to every day life. Songs like No Solace and Daughter of Summer Dawning are personal favorites besides above mentioned Sacred South, but album as a whole is excellent. Go check this one out and support your scene.
KRAYKULLA-WEBZINE 