Rise Against are back with new album. This time they offer eleven songs of melodic hardcore punk with smart political and personal lyrics like we are used to from Tim McIlrath and the gang. Songs are epic, energetic, quickly changing pace from fast hardcore influenced more old school oriented song structures to more gentle and atmospheric almost pop punk parts in some of the songs. The Numbers, Nowhere Generation, Talking To Ourselves and Monarch are sure about to win you over if you are not a fan of Rise Against you will be, if you are you will love this one like all other albums from this legendary band. Unfortunately I did not see this band live yet, but would love to, hopefully that happens some time in the near future.
In order to liven up this somber summer without live music, Dutch punk rock band Ink Bomb re-releases the title song of its debut EP ‘Invincible Summer’ (2016) today.
According to guitar player Quirijn Foeken the original version was ‘nice, but with lots of room for improvement’. “When I finished recording our split with No Breakfast Goodbye, I revisited our older songs – as I always do. If you listen tot the version of Invincible Summer we played in Doornroosje, you’ll notice it sounds more intense than the studio version. With a higher tempo, more vocals.”
Singer Joost Hoedemaeckers regards the freedom-loving, carefree song Invincible Summer ’21 in these meager times as ‘an antidepressant against the heavy weight of the world on your shoulders’. Furthermore, the song has grown simultaneously with the band. Bass player Arina Banga: “As a band, we’ve grown in songwriting as well as in interplay and we think you can hear that in Invincible Summer ’21. My bass line for example: in 2016 it was quite basic. Now, it’s more, how do i put it…”
“More frilly”, drummer Paul van de Geijn adds. Arina “The frillyness increased considerably indeed!” (Laughs)
Just as the original version Invincible Summer ’21 was recorded and mixed by Quirijn Foeken of Fiction Studio. The mastering was done by the American Bill Henderson of Azimuth Mastering. Invincible Summer ’21 comes out today on Bandcamp, YouTube, Spotify and all other streaming services.
Austrian punks Missstand are in no way strangers to the pages of this zine. After I watched and listened to their fantastic show at now defunct Tepih na paleti festival in Slovenia couple of years ago, I interviewed the guys for this zine. Now, I am happy being able to listen to new record that is out for a week or so. This time there are 13 new songs and boy do they sound great. Missstand play an energy bomb of fast and melodic punk with super lyrics in German and occasional in English that are smart mix of personal and political coupled with dual vocals and great guitar work. I don´t know how to explain this but the music of this band always makes me want to pump my fist in the air and hug the sweaty kid in the pit next to me. This is punk rock par excellence. My favorite songs are: Bonjour Tristesse, Heute Alles and Morgen Nichts.
KRAYKULLA-WEBZINE 