Besides having black metal scene, Norway also has a strong underground hardcore punk scene. Veterans Die A Legend released their first new material in six years with Loyal Blood Records. This 10 inch contains 5 gritty hardcore punk songs. Liars is a noisy mid tempo metalized hardcore song with thundering guitars and booming bass reminding me a lot of Converge sounding a bit apocalyptic. Bloodthirst is for me one of the best songs on the record being fast, energetic straightforward hardcore punk song with moshing part for the end. Snakes is the most noisy and brutal song on the record with total booming bass and fast dirty riffs and crushing drums. Simulacrum is also fast song and another of my favorites on the mini album. Poetic titled Legends(Never Die) is the right way to close the record. Welcome back, you delivered a crushing hardcore record.
Norwegian punk scene is a new and mostly unexplored territory for me, but I discover more and more fantastic bands each day, and Cockroach Clan is one of those bands. Their record is out with Fysisk Format.
These guys and their songs date back 25 years and the vocalist of this band is none other than Messiah, who sang for Mayhem back in the days. But, let us focus on Cockroach Clan and leave past be the past. This record contains 12 songs some being new recordings of old hits as well as a handful of new tracks and a cover of Mountain Goat’s Going to Georgia. The music is hard punkrock, streetwise punk with head and tail, anthemic melodies and hymnic choruses just made to inflame your old punkrock heart. This is not some mellow pop punk emo, this is punk with balls and soul. Songs like Cockroach Fandango, On An Island or Facts On The Wall are sure to become your favorites. Super band, great record!
I once saw Norway˙s Agenda play in my hometown when they were touring like six years ago with Swedes Myteri and the show was great, I was blown away with force and energy that Agenda provided that evening on stage of the small club.
Although I know Norway mainly because of black metal, Stavanger based Agenda play hardcore punk/crust with mainly fast songs, screaming vocals and good lyrics. This is not your usual d-beat clicheed crust band, this is mainly hardcore punk par excellence. There are 10 songs on this record and they are all fantastic, I enjoyed listening to them so much. What I love about the music of Agenda is that besides harsh atmosphere, they also make a great feeling of cold and melancholy with their subtle melodies in the song structures. Besides fast songs, there are couple of more sludge, doomy songs for example Life Left Behind or Road To Hell, which fit perfectly in the soundtrack for apocalypse. Songs like Walls and City Dies Tonight are sure to become your favorites like they are mine. Love this record, would love to see them play live again soon!
KRAYKULLA-WEBZINE 