Swedish punk rock legends No Fun At All are back with their seventh full length opus, first one in four years. It is long awaited and contains 12 songs. What to say? This one has old school NFAA vibe, but also what surprised me is a new hardcore aggression and energy that stems from the songwriting on this record. I was surprised with Tear Me Down, song that hits in the head with hardcore raw energy, combined with Ingemar´s melodic singing and gang sing along backing vocals. Every Single Screen and See The Splendor are more old school melodic punk No Fun At All songs, with strong main melody, cutting guitar work and anthemic choruses for you to hum and sing along to. Another song that stands out is Smart You Out, mid tempo punk anthem about unrestricted freedom. Also, Wonderland is a bit Bad Religion influenced song, especially in the second half of the song. Dead And Gone is sure going to be concert favorite for many of us, I think this is a sure hit. Of all the songs it is really hard to choose highlights and favorites, but I have tried, so those above are mine. You listen to this new opus of this legends and catch them play live somewhere, I saw them live twice and their show is awesome.
My hometown Čakovec was always a fertile ground for hardcore punk bands and since nineties many great bands and great releases came from our town. Dead Dog Summer are new band in our scene with this being their debut album, but members are active and have played in many glorious bands such as Youth Against, Senata Fox, Farewell Reason, Implicite, Motorno ulje and many others. This band was created when pandemic lockdown created kind of boredom and killed the scene so, three friends decided to meet and create new music as kind of amalgamation of music they listen to and music they played in their previous bands.
As a little hardcore kid, I must admit that this kind of hardcore punk would never be my cup of tea, because I was, and still partially am, old school redneck who likes his hardcore fast and furious, but now, at 45 years of age and almost thirty years in the scene, I learned to appreciate some other styles, but this is all hardcore isn´t it? Well, Dead Dog Summer play melodic hardcore with some post hardcore influences and I am awed with production of this record, which was recorded in vocalist/guitarist Igor´s studio and mixed and mastered by Ivan Jakić who also did awesome job. There are 10 songs on this record. Lyrics are in English language and I can safely say, everyone can relate to. Some of them feel like grown up hardcore kid midlife crisis and relations about death, loss, existence, envy, selfishness, giving to others, creating today for yourself, but as you can see, those are all everyday themes that make us better persons, and that is the point of hardcore for me. I love the transformation of vocals, from great melodic singing to anguished screaming and back. My personal favorites are anthemic Today, also Time, but real gems for me are more up tempo punk rock songs like Diamonds and Thorns, No Regrets. Musicianship is tight and sometimes when listening some of the guitar work reminded me of more slower Ignite songs, minus vocals of course, also I heard some Debeli Precjednik influenced riffs in some songs, but maybe it is just me hehe. Anyway, check this one out. Support your scene and listen to great music and love your life because it is the only one you will have.
After joining the Facedown Family in 2021 and releasing four singles, HolyName is back with one more single and the announcement of their self-titled full length release.
Check out the new single “Creed” (ft. Eric Gregson of xDeathstarx) everywhere you listen to music.
HolyName’s watchword is preachcore, and their self-described sound of “holy drone violent worship” makes a lot of sense when you hear their songs. The new album is essentially a love letter to Christ and a tribute to the history of eastern orthodoxy.
A season of death and profound brokenness caused Tommy Green to dive deeply into the very beginnings of the church, seeking for the connection between holy orthodoxy and liturgical practices, and today’s modern Pentecostal charismatic church. He found beauty in a hidden treasure that he didn’t fully understand, his pain driving him to a place he never intended to go. Orthodox imagery is extremely influential to the graphics and lyrics of HolyName’s work. The holy orthodox church and the historical origin of Christianity became very important to Tommy personally and that’s why the imagery seems so saturated with traditional ancient orthodox Christianity.
The genesis of the idea of HolyName sprang from a lockdown project when Joe and Tommy recruited friends from their church community nationwide to participate in a worship “mix tape.” Tommy’s initial contributions were an acoustic song he wrote in 2014 called “Meet Me Somewhere Quiet” and a cover of a song by his brother-in-law Aaron Craner called “Fall On Your Knees”. He sent the songs to Joe who turned them from acoustics to fully instrumental heavy tracks. When the duo heard the first finished products they were excited to keep going. Tommy felt like he was using the songs and the choruses and the sounds of HolyName to try to keep his faith alive when he felt like it was dying.
“Some of the answers that I have been given by the modern charismatic Christian culture weren’t adequate. There were gaps that I couldn’t seem to fill in the face of death. I knew the faith that brought me brought me through Sleeping Giant and nurtured that ministry was beautiful, but I was losing such faith that I needed to find the eyes of Christ somewhere and I couldn’t seem to get my feet under me with the answers that I had. I was really in danger of walking away from quite a lot.”
The search into the origin of his faith opened the door for Tommy to fall in love with orthodoxy. He has been able to use the experience of this project to process his grief and work through broken-heartedness.
In addition to Tommy Green and Joe Holt, the HolyName project features mixing and mastering by Ryan Leitru, additional vocals from The REV Gang choir, Brook Reeves of Impending Doom, Eric Gregson of xDeathstarx, Joe Advent, Danon Saylor of Nothing Left, Ryan Clark of Demon Hunter, and Mike Felker of Convictions, with beats produced by Hunter Babcock of Wolf Skin.
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