Last year was a strange year. A lot happened in my private life which led to me not doing as much as I wanted to do. Some negative, but mostly positive. However, no matter how positive the events were, it cost me a lot of energy. With my energy and attention drained at other places, I did not have a lot of energy left to write reviews. I found myself doing the bare minimum. That just doesn’t feel right.
Usually I do not have any new year’s resolutions. Why would I wait to implement change in my life and not just try to change my behavior straight away? This year however, I do have one new year’s resolution: channel a bit more energy into my writing. We’ll see how this will play out. This time, our time at the kitchen table is in my mind sort of a statement of intent. Where in the past years I used our first meetup of the year to look back at last year, I now want to look forward, solely focusing on 2024. Although the year is young, we are already treated to a couple of interesting releases.
It is all coming back
One of the first new releases I heard this year is one hell of a banger. Klint from Germany released a single, Golden Twenties, that does something really interesting. For this single Klint diverges from their usual fair of synth punk and adds loads of brass and vocals taken from the 1920’s swing. The vocals especially were not what I expected. I don’t know if it was sampled, but it has definitely a 1920’s vibe, reminding me a bit of Squirrel Nut Zipper for example. This single is a departure from their usual habitat. Where on other releases Klint plays fast synth punk, here the brass plays a big role in their sound, pushing it into slightly different territory. The synth punk base almost sounds like something a dance or techno act could approve. It remains clear though that this is a punk band. I don’t know if this single is something of a one time experiment or a more permanent change of direction. I would not mind if this is not a one-time project but something the band will return to in the future.
I was so excited to see a new Short Days release! This band popped up on my radar shortly after the release of their debut full length self-titled LP. That album had me looking for more releases of the band and I found a bunch of ep’s and splits. A real treasure trove with fast and melodic punk. Soon after it became very quiet around this band. I was afraid that meant that this band was over and done with. It is not unusual to see bands go after just one or two releases, right? I was wrong though, and happy about that too. Direction Nowhere continues where the self-titled left of. It is another serving of prime melodic punk. The tempo is high, the music is filled with hooks that will stick with you for days. With no less than fourteen tracks, this album is chock full of catchy tunes. It reminds me a bit of Sore Points, but with a dash of that typical French OI! sound if that makes sense.
Dancing in the darkness
And now for something completely different, The Violent Youth released a new full length. Na Igle is the name of the game this time around. I was under the impression that over time their sound slowly became a bit more organic. I have not yet checked if that was something that I imagined or in fact true. What I have checked is that this release breaks with that (imaginary?) development. The music is cold and chilly putting this album firmly in the new-wave corner. If that term doesn’t mean that much perhaps you can imagine a very synth heavy post punk band. I really dig the vocals of this band. They are very dark and deep, very gothy, not unlike a more depressed Sisters Of Mercy. The Violent Youth however is also very dance-able. If you listen to this with your eyes closed it is not very difficult to imagine a dark dancing hall with no light apart from a pulsating bright white light. A hall filled with folks dressed in black, preferably leather. Somewhere during the listening experience you might see blood flooding through the ceiling to the great enjoyment of the dancing crowd. Wait, isn’t that Blade? Again? If you read this and you think: hey, this would be the perfect band for a record label like Artoffact Records, you could hardly be more right as that label is their home.
Don't we all like crust?
When I want to listen to Svdestada in Bandcamp, I always have to check the spelling. I have releases under Svdestada, but also as Sudestada. However annoying I find this, the quality of the band is not diminished by this. Svdestada (I’ll stick with the spelling used on their latest release) is a Spanish crust band and Candela is their third release. Svdestada fits perfectly in the Spanish crust scene. Of course they play with a lot of sturm und drang, as all crust bands should. They add to that a sense of melody that make them sound not unlike a band like Ictvs (or is it Ictus?) which, to me, places them firm in the middle of the Spanish scene. This release sees them refining their art, not making drastic changes, but slowly improving their songwriting skills. A prime example of those skills is the final track "Candela". Where the band so far excelled in writing shorter, very explosive tracks (usually no longer than three minutes) this track is 12 minutes of pure crust intensity (ok, the last 1,5 minute is the song fading out, but still). The song carefully plays with different tempos, making sure the explosive parts sound more impactfull than ever. It's great to hear the band exploring their sound like this!
January saw the release of another record in the more or less the same genre. Haavat is a band from England with a singer from Finland. Their sound leans heavily on the Swedish scene. The vocals remind me of the Finnish band Kohti Tuhoa. Not only because the both bands write their lyrics in Finnish, but both vocalists spit these lyrics in the mike with a lot of anger and discontent. Unlike Kothi Tuhoa the music can be found more in the direction of the regular d-beat scene. I had to adapt my expectations a bit while listening to this record. Somehow I expected this album to be filled with high speed bangers. The reality is a lot of the time the music is a wee bit slower, a bit more controlled. Once I adapted to that I started enjoying this release more. I do hope that during live-shows this band sounds a bit less controlled. I do enjoy this type of music more when a band sounds like they are at the verge of flying off the rails. The album is pretty enjoyable with the vocals being the main selling point with the viciousness oozing from your speakers.
Into space we go!
Another band with incredibly harsh vocals that I like is LLNN. You might remember me selecting their last album Unmaker as my best record of 2021, right? Imagine my excitement discovering they released a new song on their split with Sugar Horse. Both bands share one song on this 7’’, with LLNN opening. Their contribution called “The Horror” is a track used to open their concerts. It is originally written by John Cxnnor, the industrial brother or side project of LLNN. “The Horror” is aptly chosen as a name for this spacey and spooky sound, emphasizing that the emptiness of space is pure horror. The tune is built like a big soundscape with a break around the third minute. The sound is very mechanical, not unlike Batillus second album Furnace, but more experimental than that. It differs a lot from the previous releases, but I can imagine it to be a perfect opener for their concerts, setting the tone for what's to come.
Sugar Horse, on the other side of this split was unknown to me up this split. Their tune “Sleep Paralysis Demon” is a very heavy and slow post-metal / post-hardcore track that sounds like it is meant to destroy everything in its path. The band states that this tune is their attempt to play something LLNN-like. A quick check of their previous releases tell me that this song is somewhat unusual for the band, the tracks I checked for example, contained only clean vocals. This indicates to me that both bands use this split to experiment with their sound a bit. It is up to you to decide whether you enjoy this experiment. I will look into John Cxnnor, but do hope LLNN will deliver another banger more in line with Unmaker. On the other hand I find myself enjoying this Sugar Horse track more than their previous output.
Ummon was the first Slift album I ever heard. It was one of those albums that had me sit back and hear their massive and spacious sound wash over me in huge psychedelic waves. You can imagine I am happy to find out there is a new album out. Ilion is the name of the game this time around. The artwork was a bit of a let-down after Ummon’s breathtaking album cover. Music wise there is nothing to complain about though. The production is a bit heavier, making the music sound slightly less psychedelic and more regular stoner. It also makes it a bit less of an instantaneous hit. However, give this record some time and it will take you on a trip, just like its predecessor. The psychedelic aspects are less at the surface, but are still there, giving the record that little extra to boost it over its competitors. If you don’t have the patience to check the whole album, at least check “Confluence”, the fourth track of the album and the most accessible of the bunch. It features a really long and trippy solo. The track balances catchiness and psychedelic influences and is (so far) the best track of the album. Like LLNN this is very spacey, but Slift’s space is not spooky, it’s trippy. The kind that makes you imagine a discoverer of new planets. As this record truly is a grower I would like to ask you to give this ample playing time, it needs it. And it deserves it!
The journey continues
Last year I cheated a bit by including the artwork of this album in our list of best cover art of 2023. I felt I could do so because this same art was used for the single “The Architect”. I stand by that decision as the artwork is beautiful! It gives up the hint of being part of a big story. Which is very fitting because Mountain Caller is telling a story through their music. They took up a big challenge with that as they are an instrumental band, so their post-rock / post-metal will have to tell a tale without words to guide you through the story. On previous releases (their debut album and an EP) it worked really well. Those albums contained the kind of post-rock that you put on and could enjoy, sitting on a comfy chair, eyes closed, playing a movie in your head. Yes, those albums do have a certain soundtrack-like feel. The big question is then: does their sophomore album, Chronicle II: Hypergenesis, fit into their slowly expanding discography? After a couple of spins I can assure you it does. There is one experiment on it I do feel I need to highlight. On one track vocals are applied. It makes me curious why the band deviates from their usual path. It works well for the record as the vocals fit the music perfectly. However, it is the weakest track on the album, partially because of the inclusion of vocals. It breaks the spell as you can perhaps imagine. However, this is still a spellbinding album!
The future unknown?
And there is so much to look forward to. There are releases planned that I very much look forward to. Think Schedule 1, Dödsrit, Crawl, Necrot, Grind, Hot Water Music and many, many more!
Perhaps we will talk about those later though. See you next time.
