Possessed Politicians is currently a one man band from Frederick, Maryland, USA. You know, sometimes when you sail through the sea of great and good bands you step on a mine. This is one of such mines. There are six songs on this one, This is really a short one with longest song being just one minute thirty seconds long, all others are shorter. The music is not so bad melodic hardcore punk with many rehashed riffs and nothing special, but not bad. Vocals are just killing me, man. The guy sings through some electronic effect or bad microphone and although there are songs like ‘I Can’t Understand The Lyrics’ or ‘Rambo Hates Vietnamese People’, which are pretty funny titles and lyrics are all about humor and black humor, this one is plain bad. Hope it will improve with future releases.
Have No Heroes were already featured on the pages of this webzine when we reviewed one of their records a while ago. This is a four piece melodic hardcore punk band from Riga, Latvia. We can almost safely call them Latvian Pennywise because that is the band of which their music reminds me the most. Not that they copied it, but with hardcore punk energy which bursts from the songs, speed, great vocal melodies and backing vocal harmonies and above all, great songwriting. This one contains an intro plus twelve songs of uplifting spirit, melodic skate punk hardcore and I enjoyed every single minute of it. These guys are also great musicians, there are couple of superb guitar solos and hooks on this beauty like in awesome ‘No Regrets’. Lyrics are smartly written and they are personal but also deal with scene, genre, there are also political themes if you read between the lines and these songs somehow give hope for better tomorrow. When I listen to this one, it is no holds barred, no philosophy, nineties style influenced melodic hardcore punk with Pennywise, Good Riddance and No Use For A Name immediately falling on my mind. It is so hard to tell some songs as highlights because album as a whole is fantastic, but I will try: ‘No Regrets’, ‘Funeral Of The Genre’, ‘Better Way’, ‘Divide And Conquer’, ‘Final Destination’, damn that is already almost half of the album. One of the best releases in this genre to come out this year.
Bankrupt from Hungary are in no way strangers to the pages of this webzine and this is their brand new record, sixth full length record in band’s 25 years of being in the scene. There are eight songs on this beauty and Bankrupt continues to wage war with the corrupt and illiberal political system in their home country Hungary. This means lyrics are pretty political but written in smart way and although being direct you can also read between the lines and interpret the lyrics your way. Many of that which Bankrupt sings about can be said about home country Croatia too, so I can totally relate to the songs and lyrics. Music of Bankrupt is melodic punk/skate punk but the one leaning more in the nineties old school melodic punk rock but having also some surf, reggae and post punk influences in their song structures. I personally think that this album is one of their best, if not their best work yet. I just can’t decide my personal favorites from this one, but that would be ‘Viktorland’, ‘Hungarian Satan’ and ‘Illiberal Holiday’. The one song I must also mention is ‘The Plane To Toronto’ because I know how much it means to the band. Vocals are nice, not shouted but sung and backing vocals harmonies and guitar melody lines are soo sweet that some of the songs just make your heart melt. Great album from our neighbors.
KRAYKULLA-WEBZINE 