This book is in fact a fine collection of eighties photos of more and less known hardcore punk bands in action, capturing all the intensity and energy that only hardcore punk show can provide. All of the fantastic photos are done by great Anne Ullrich and foreword and comments to the bands are done by Lee Hollis known as a singer for legendary hardcore punk band Spermbirds. I enjoyed seeing those photos, but I also enjoyed reading Lee’s comments because they are sometimes so full of black humor and sarcasm, sometimes you can see in him that little hardcore kid with shining eyes that we all still are. Great monography, great book and I really enjoy to have it in my collection. Hardcore lives!
Minus Youth are hailing from Stuttgart, Germany and this is their new e.p. This one contains four songs of metallic hardcore, not unlike All Out War, Earth Crisis, but with some street punk roots touches like Madball. I really enjoyed this one so much. Lately, I really enjoy these newer releases of hardcore scene and bands coming out, so many and I am glad after being thirty years in the scene that this is still thriving and pumping scene alive and well and will never die. Music of Minus Youth is aggressive, up tempo and also thrash metal influenced in guitar parts but still hardcore to the bone. My personal favorite on this little e.p. is Sun, title song containing breaks and speed, just what any great hardcore anthem should have. Vocals are harsh, backing gang vocals too, but in all there are no death metal singing masked in hardcore, this is a great hardcore shouter on mic here. Also, song I must highlight is Tens to Thirties. Great e.p. and great hardcore band.
Time for one more band from my regional scene to grace the pages of this zine. Namely, SMRT RAZUMA. This is their brand new full length album and what a mighty debut it is. Recorded and mixed in Studio Depth, sound of the album only proves what great work File does with his recordings. Back to the album. This one contains intro plus 10 songs in Croatian language. Music of SMRT RAZUMA reminds me a bit of a band from Osijek called Sekta, who also mixed a lot of thrash metal guitar work with hardcore punk and d beat roots. If I must compare it to some band it would be a mixture of Verbalni delikt (their second release) and Sekta, which is no wonder since vocal Kruno is a long time scene fighter, I still remember AB Nekultura hehe. Songs are fast with screaming raw brutal vocals, yet you can understand what is being sung, of course if you know Croatian hehe. But, beneath all brutality and smartly written lyrics about media manipulation, poverty, migrants, war and I approve and love when band uses some samples like from news, games, movies and similar for intro of songs. My personal favorites are Bombe naše žrtve vaše, Medijska manipulacija, Stid i bol. Mighty debut indeed! I am sorry to say, but I did not check them out live yet, but I will soon!
KRAYKULLA-WEBZINE 