NaMinimumu from Zadar, Croatia is by no means stranger to the pages of this webzine. I reviewed their release back in the day. NaMinimumu is a one man band from Zadar, Croatia and plays rock, punk and metal, with lots of melody and energy. This is is the second album in English language and it contains seven songs. It is a concept album with themes of transhumanism, artificial intelligence, and cosmic evolution. It tells about a story of a future where humans can upload their minds to digital platforms, achieve immortality, and interact with cyborgs and robots. However, this utopian vision is not without its dangers, as some of these entities may have sinister motives and pose a threat to the natural order. Musically, this album is very catchy, with lots of guitar melodies, yet not missing harshness, some delving into doom metal sector like for example ‘Life to Eternity’. Production wise album is superb. Vocals are melodic yet harsh at times when they need to be harsh, with catchy choruses with melodies bordering on anthemic. I love this album and songs like ‘Cyborgs’, and ‘Children of the Stars’ being my favorites with above mentioned ‘Life to Eternity’, also ‘Upload Your Mind’. Go get this one because it is a good piece of music.
Legendary street punks Total Chaos are back with their new studio full length album and it is a blast! There are 12 songs on this beauty and while it is not ferocious as first two albums ‘Pledge Of Defiance’ or ‘Patriotic Shock’ back in the days it blew me away how brutal and harsh this album is. There is trademark harsh vocals by singer Rob Chaos who founded this band in 1989, so next year there will be 35th birthday for these guys. Considering the music, Total Chaos play street punk, mainly fast and strong with some punk rock mid tempo anthems thrown in for good measure like ‘No Peace In The City’, but for me real beauties of this album are fast street punk anthems like ‘Street Punx’, ‘Rise Up’ or ‘I Will Not Break’. This band plays hardcore punk but there are some blistering almost thrash metal influenced guitar solos courtesy of guitarist Shawn Smash, so I think the ideal tour pack for Total Chaos would be The Exploited, The Casualties, Acidez and similar bands. Lyrics deal with war, pollution, staying strong, street life, against nationalism….so all the right themes in the right places. This is not their best album, but I would put it right there above between top three albums after above mentioned first two albums. Great album by legendary band!
‘Questi Danni‘ is the new album by the italian emopunk band Monteluna, an energetic whiplash of nostalgia, a smile at one’s adolescence and a few band-aids to put on the scratches it left behind.
A short record that always sounds fast, hurried like a student late under the ultimatum of the school bell. In the run we move from more limpid midwest emo-style moments to straighter passages borrowed from the 2000s school of Italian punk. A work with which the band has tried to find its own style but above all its own balance between the instinct towards a rough and edgy immediacy and the need to dig into memories in order to tell a sincere story.
‘Questi Danni‘ (These Damages) because one does not want to romanticize the past or get lost in nostalgia, but because one knows that every wound, every mistake, every scrape on the knee falling off the bike has contributed to making us the people we are. The album imagery consists of yellowed photos in which we barely recognise ourselves in order to remember and learn from the best and worst moments. The record will be released in a limited edition tape by the independent labels We’re Trying Records(USA) andStray records(AT).
KRAYKULLA-WEBZINE 