We stay on European soil in this week edition of Kraykulla Webzine. Vienna hardcore scene has always been fantastic with bands like Only Attitude Counts, Spidercrew and many more immediately coming to mind. Kickdown are also from that scene. Formed in 1998, this is their fifth full length album. What I love about Vienna style hardcore is that they mix brutality and street punk attitude, never forgetting their roots. Kickdown is no exception. They cleverly mix metallic riffs and sharp guitars with oi street influence, especially in fantastic Outlaws Anthem, but also leaning heavily on metal like in almost thrash metal /crossover The Rulez, reminding me a bit of more metal phase of Suicidal Tendencies in some parts of that song. My personal highlights from this record are also Follow Your Fate, Years Of Glory and Complete Control. This is great Euro hardcore record. Shout out to Vienna hardcore crew!
BZFOS are back! Shock Rock Rebels is the new, tenth album in the twenty blood soaked years these Vienna based fiends walk among us. This is the second album this band got away from their more psychobilly horror oriented history and evolved into melodic horror punk rock band, in fact doing what they want is what Dead Richy Gein and his gang do best. I can say this new collection of songs is somehow one level up continuation of their previous opus All These Fiendish Things. This new one contains melody, horror, sarcasm, black humor and gore, just like a good horror should do. I consider Richy one of the greatest horror movie fiend authorities in Europe and I love what he does and I can safely say this album and the previous one are the best this band has done yet. Although hits like Stop Writing Songs About Your Girlfriend, Damien, Belial, This Night On Halloween and other horror songs are my favorites, Off With Their Heads is absolute hit for me, being the fastest melodic anthem with slight political touch between the lines. There are rock songs, there are metal influences and hard rock, but common denominator behind it all is good old horror punk rock. Great album. Also, check out their videos because they are quite little nice horror movies.
Perfect Sky are back with their first record in about 17 years, These guys were active in early 2000s and part of prolific Vienna hardcore scene with many great bands coming from there. The good people at WTF Records are really doing fantastic job with all their great Euro hardcore releases coming out and delivering it straight to the point, to the hearts of old and young hardcore kids all over the world.
With a few changes in line – up Perfect Sky attack with under 30 minutes of great Euro hardcore just made to make your day better. There are nine songs on this record and I love each and every one of them. The vocals remind me a bit of Kid D from Ryker´s in some of the songs, delivering moshing parts and faster street punk influenced songs in good measure considering song structures. There is a guest appearance of none other than Mike from Only Attitude Counts/Spidercrew on PMA which is one of my personal favorites on this record, besides Wolfpack and Conquer The World. So, if you love hardcore, support the scene, support the cause worldwide and go listen and get this one, you will not regret it!
KRAYKULLA-WEBZINE 