Starvation nisu novo ime na hrvatskoj underground sceni, ali je ova inkarnacija benda nova. Članovi benda su svirali po mnogim bendovima i dolaze iz različitih dijelova Hrvatske, ali je bend baziran u Zagrebu. Ovo im je novi album koji sadrži 11 pjesama od kojih je jedna intro. Kako opisati muziku? Meni je ovo mješavina hardcore punka, d-beata i švedske škole death metala iz 90-ih, dakle bendova poput Dismember, At The Gates, stari Entombed i sličnih. U biti ovaj album je spoj onoga što članovi benda slušaju, pošto poznam osobno neke od njih. Meni je upečatljivo kako Starvation odlično miješa melodiju, odnosno tu agresivnu melankoliju sa agresijom i prljavštinom crust hardcore punka. Takva je i produkcija, mene jako podsjeća na produkcije iz ranih 90-ih. Dakle, pjesme su brze i agresivne, vokal je growl, ali uglavnom ga se može razumjeti podosta što pjeva, pa je to još jedan plus. Moji osobni favoriti zbog toga što volim taj miks melodije i agresije na ovom albumu su ‘Their Light Consume Us All’, ‘Poison God’ i ‘End Of Mankind’, no to ne moraju biti i tvoji favoriti, poslušaj album pa vidi odnosno čuj što ti najbolje odgovara. Nisam gledao ovaj bend uživo, ali bih jako volio čekirati ovaj materijal live, jer sam siguran da je preodličan uživo. Uglavnom, topla preporuka.
Arde from Berlin, Germany were already featured on the pages of this webzine with their last release. This time, they just let out a split opus with Spanish horde called Nakkiga. This one contains three conceptual songs by Nakkiga and only one almost fifteen minute long song by Arde called ‘Basalarr’, the name of the song is offering ancient mystical plant, that has life and strength and is very important to Basque culture. The song itself starts atmospheric and slow rolling, turning into fast blast beats, aggressive black metal screams, bordering with anguish and desperate cries and guitar work not unlike nineties old school black metal riffing. Then song later evolves again into atmospheric ambiental piece with guitars, wind swipes and chimes taking you into some other dimension and delivering calm and darkness into you, but also giving you strength to close your eyes, take a deep breath and go on with your life battling your inner demons successfully. So, although it is one long song, it could easy be divided into couple of different songs but it does not get boring for a second. Nakkiga side consists of three conceptual songs about the birth cycle of life, mixing pure black metal assault with aggression and melancholic melody, but also giving it a breath of crust punk attack in both bands’ music. I love the epic guitar work for example in ‘Denbora’, love the production and the sound wall that Nakkiga creates and I can only imagine how mighty this sounds live. Hopefully I will witness it one day. Vocals are tortured screams, but not too extreme, just the way I like it. This is one hell of a mighty black metal release.
Long time no crust hardcore punk on the pages of this zine. So, it is time for me to correct that mistake and I can safely say that Malatesta are best band for that. These guys are hailing from Munich, Germany. This brand new opus contains eight songs. Lyrics are in German language and deal with inner struggle and battling inner demons, machoism, sexism but from personal side of things. So, that means lyrics are not your usual d-beat crust punk about war, nuclear terror, post apocalypse and similar merry themes, though there is nothing wrong with that. Malatesta play d-beat hardcore crust punk but guitars create lots of melody that sounds so great, haunting and melancholic, so I can say there are also, or at least I hear it, some black metal influences in guitar work, I can hear some Darkthrone in their crusty albums in some guitars but I can tell you, this album contains great songwriting and does not get boring, that means not every song is similar, like it is often case with bands that play this kind of music. This is energy, melody, melancholy and darkness in eight opuses. I would so like to see this band play live, I am sure their show is energy pure. Go check this one out. You will not regret it.
KRAYKULLA-WEBZINE 