Scarecrow from Finland play their vision of metal hardcore horror punk for more than twenty years now and they became one of my favorite bands of this genre. This time they deliver their first concept album opus and it is excellent, maybe the best album of this entity up to date. This one contains 16 songs of fast, raw and gory hardcore horrorpunk with metal influences and some synth underlayers which only emphasize the dark atmosphere of this bomb of a record. Fast, strong, but also melodic and melancholic in a way only Finnish bands can do. Songs like Mark Of The Werewolf, Witchfuck, In The Name Of Nothing, Gruesome Twosome are my personal favorites. I strongly recommend this record with all my dark black heart. This is for sure one of the best releases that came out this year.
Time for a wicked attack from Brazil, namely Escalpo. These guys are relatively new band being formed recently playing metal punk, with hardcore crust punk influences thrown in the song structures for good measure. This release contains three songs and I think they are in Portuguese or Spanish, I am really sorry if I am mistaken and I offended someone. But, let the music speak for itself. Onda de Estupidez is a crusty hardcore punk anthem with ending belonging more in thrash metal like waters and apocalyptic thundering drums and wicked guitar work, coupled with harsh vocals. My personal favorite of these three songs is Olhando pro Chao being thrash metal d-beat hardcore punk jewel on this record and I would love to hear these guys destroying live because I am sure their music kills while on stage. The title track is starting more Discharge style yet remaining metal with double bass work, wicked vocal work and razors edge guitars. This is a great release, can´t wait for more material.
No Sanctuary from Pamplona just released their new record. The thing about this band is they sound pretty original and different from other clicheed classical d-beat hardcore punk bands. No, they rather choose another way, mixing crust hardcore punk with darker elements of Celtic Frost, Black Sabbath, sludge and experiments of Amebix. This record contains 7 songs that are maybe a bit longer in duration but in no way boring. I love the dark atmosphere, slow rolling of drums in doom parts, the vocals ranging from shouting, chanting, almost gothic melodic singing, screaming and whispering. Also, I love when band uses samples in their music, No Sanctuary use samples very smart in their song structures thus making songs even richer with thick atmosphere. The lyrics are in English and in Spanish, from great ode to John Carpenter and VHS era(He Lives) to horror(Curse of the Werewolf) and for me the best song on this record, epic The Weaver in the Vault being Lovecraftian in atmosphere and lyrics. This is truely one of underground´s gems so go listen to this one.
KRAYKULLA-WEBZINE 