#25 Flork! Reviews: Olaf Olafsonn and the Big Bad Trip - Selenopolis (2021)

Olaf Olafsonn and the Big Bad Trip - Selenopolis (2021)
By Flork (contact)

At first, I was a bit unsure whether I had pressed play on the right album. A light, acoustic guitar instrumental flooded my head through the headphones and I was compelled to pick up my smartphone and check whether I hadn’t accidentally pressed a wrong icon or such. But no, it was there, displayed quite clearly, Selenopolis by Olaf Olafsonn and the Big Bad Trip. *Hmnn* (rubbing my chin while half-closing my left eye).

 

After the opening track, Profane to Sacred, I continued listening on to Woodland Shrines, a longer, yet very different version of the former track, it too being completely instrumental with an added guitar for accompaniment, as well as a shaker instrument of some sort keeping the slow background tempo, while the guitars sped ahead at the forefront. Very folksy, yet still very image-provoking, especially of forests and autumn and chillier weather. This is a longer and intricate song that is beautiful and masterfully played. I scroll down to see the description on the bandcamp.com site and I’m a bit surprised to see the tags displaying black metal, alternative, acid rock, and psychedelic. 

I am intrigued. The third track, City on the Edge, has a single bass beat, this time in the forefront along with the guitar styles of the previous tracks. The percussionist does an amazing job of giving a mysterious effect on the ride cymbal, with the entire track leading to a faster-paced build-up towards the end. I realise that I haven’t heard any vocals until I get to Swamp Rite, where a harmony of male vocals can be heard, and yet there is no text whatsoever (although none is necessary). On the latter tracks, vocals are heard only sporadically and when necessary. The instruments are clearly the stars of the show.

The rest of the album is a cool, somewhat bluesy-style of music that in fact does evoke black metal imagery, stuff like pagan rituals or medieval festivals, although the entire album is very peaceful and leans towards psychedelic folk with elements of black metal at its root apex, but without distortion or rage. Temple of Comus may be a good example of this as the album comes to a peaceful end, this is true as well with the final track, Apotheosis. All the tracks are peaceful and soothing and of course, cool.

#23 Flork! Reviews: Small Town Life - Common Grey (2021)

 

Small Town Life - Common Grey (2021)
By Flork (contact)

Quite often, I am completely amazed about what is hidden in parts of the world unknown to those who come from North America (and Europe too). Small Town Life is a garage rock/punk band from the small and nondescript town of Šaľa in southwestern Slovakia, an inconspicuous place on the river Váh where very little goes on, while its residents preferring to keep it that way. I was there once, in fact, and can’t say that I had a memorable experience or anything to write home about, but I do remember the fried cheese and Kofola I ate on the main pedestrian strip was quite tasty. Small town Slovakia at its best, where time passes slowly. But don’t get me wrong, I am not dissing the place, in fact, I quite liked the nicely-painted houses and zateplované panelaky, a sleepy little town to chill and live a peaceful and happy life. I could live in Šaľa.

But the Florkster has found another reason to like Šaľa. Small Town Life is a trio of rockers who write great, original tunes that are all sung in English and would please any audience of any age. The sound is reminiscent of 90s grunge, the tunes being catchy, even though descriptions of their debut album describe Common Grey as a shift to darker territories, at least sound-wise when compared to their debut EP. In fact, it’s very similar to the 90s album Legal Drug by Gladiator, although I’m sure the band members would argue with me on this point. Just sayin’. 

 

Still, I can’t make any comparison to this album and the EP, since I haven’t actually listened to the EP yet, but I wouldn’t describe Common Grey as dark or depressing at all. In fact, all the tracks are lively and full of heavy bar chords and short guitar solos. Take Out of Lights, for example, one of the longer tracks on the list. This song isn’t totally upbeat, but does have a positive energy around it. Likewise, You Said, another song that sounds great with a great slowed-down tempo. Whether it was intentional to be played at a slower pace or not, I really don’t know, but I could see this track really grabbing attention if it were sped up a gear or two.  In fact, several of the tracks could use an infusion of caffeine, but again, I don’t want to get into any arguments with the band. Maybe they just like their coffee with one sugar instead of two. I did mention they come from Šaľa.

One thing that is important to note is that these guys do have a solid hold on their instruments and vocals. They’ve played gigs all over Slovakia and the Czech Republic and have the potential to go very far with the current album beyond their current borders. The title track Common Grey is extremely good, as is Your Way, which combines a great riff on the higher notes of the guitar and the singer’s raw vocals. He really is a good singer and I can imagine this group rocking out on stage.

 

All in all, I give the trio from Šaľa high marks. The album is a great listen, there’s no denying that, but I can see these guys making a bigger impact on their audiences in their live shows. Production and mixing are top-notch, and there is potential for these guys to grow. Some of the tracks do tend to sound alike, so there is still room for them to write outside of the box and make each track unique from the others. But for a debut album, Common Grey is still an amazing effort in translating their sound into the studio.

#22 Flork! Reviews: Sekeromlat - Drápy a Tesáky (2022)

Sekeromlat - Drápy a Tesáky (2022)

by Flork (contact)

 

One of the first things I noticed when I listened to Sekeromlat was that their style of black metal was a bit different than the genre. I would describe it as something like black metal with a punk attitude, where the songs still remain purely black metal, but with a touch of post-punk thrown in. So blackened punk describes it best, but I still think the music leans towards black metal, at least in its soul. 

Take for example, Trůn Bolesti (Throne of Pain), the 2nd track off of Drápy and Tesáky (Claws and Fangs). This track doesn't go into heavy detail with speed drumming or atmospheric keyboards, but rather stays simple with few changes in keys and no dramatic pauses. The sound is punkish, but the vocals are definitely black metal at its core. And yet, Sekeromlat is a group that shuns costumes and makeup and takes and plays their music seriously. They play what they like and have no problems whatsoever breaking and bending the rules. In fact, the compositions are all very short, I don't think any of them are longer than 3 minutes (except for the last trach), and so Sekeromlat can rightly call themselves a blackened punk metal group.

But let's focus on the music. The songs have both simple and complicated riffs, and power chords can be heard throughout the entire album.  Žalobce (The Accused) and Hadí Noc (Night of the Serpent) are amazing tracks that evoke imagery of pandemonium and anarchy, darkness that allows in just enough light to keep things hopeful. Many of the tracks focus on animals and their pain, as the album's title makes the reference. Take Vymřelý Druh (Dying Species), the final track that sends chills down my spine, a composition that combines all the elements of black metal and more, such as beauty and bleakness, hope and despair, love and hate, everything and anything where one needs the other to exist.

All of the tracks are written and sung in Czech, not because they don't want to sing in English, but rather because English wouldn't translate the mood of the album properly. I also have to add that the mixing and production are top notch. The album was recorded in late 2021 and released last month in March of 2022. Definitely worth giving a listen to.

#21 Flork! Reviews: Nazi Tampons - Chloroform Attack (EP 2021)

 

Nazi Tampons - Chloroform Attack (2021)
By Flork (contact)

It seems that the Nazi Tampons have struck a powerful chord in the right direction with regards to pure, fun punk music. The 5-song Ep from the garage Punk Rock boys from Košice packs an energy-filled punch of old-style, 1977 punk music with catchy riffs and vocals. Chloroform Attack starts us with the title track, a short and snotty tune of large proportions with great guitars that use bar chords on the higher notes. These guys are definitely tight, and it’s apparent that they practise well together while having loads of fun at the same time.

 

It moves forward to Asfyxia, again a fast song in the style of the previous one. I love the chorus here, but can’t really make out what they are singing about. My Slovak is hardly at a native-speaker level and the hairs growing inside my ears filter out a lot sound. But no matter, punk is universal, so anyone from abroad would still be swept away by the music and style, even aging hearing-impaired farts like myself.

Videa continues to entertain, another fun tune I’d love to see live.  In fact, all of the songs are amazing and don’t seem to focus on politics or the woes of the world, just good old punk rock played at its best. But wait, Zviaz ma tops it. This is an awesome melody that is complimented by the chemistry of the cool vocals.  And then it’s all over with Chirurg, like finding the last piece of a puzzle and seeing the album cover come to life.

Hopefully the Nazi Tampons will put out more great tunes this year, they are definitely worth keeping an eye on.

#20 Flork! Reviews: Wargame - Wargame (2021)

 

Wargame - Wargame (2021)

by Flork (contact)

In these times of war and uncertainty it seems somewhat fitting that the management of Jablka would send me a band to review called Wargame. This is a good thing, though, since the war in Ukraine has consumed every inch of space in my head for the past 5 weeks and has caused me to develop an unhealthy addiction to CNN’s live updates. And though the debut album Wargame is a little more than a year old at the time of writing this review, the music and lyrics are just as pertinent now as they were back then in the midst of the corona virus and economic despair.

 
 

Wargame is, of course, all about war. Like, literally every song is written about some aspect of the game and art of war. The opening track Intro/Soldiers introduces us to a world where battle is being prepared and strategies are being calculated. Suiting up for battle and putting on the heavy armor is the essence of this song, with heavy guitars and tribute to the soldiers who never give up.  Jap is another high-energy, hardcore d-beat tune that inspires conflict and confrontation but doesn’t stop, even at Uniforms. The rage is all on and war has been declared. It’s like Full Metal Jacket (Choke yourself with my hand!) meets Apocalypse Now! But this time there is no napalm, but an evil far worser who’s brought war to our neighbour’s backyard and getting ever too close to our fence.

All the songs are sung in English and don’t tend to have lengthy texts, with much of the songs focused only on the topic at hand. It’s war after all, isn’t it? No time to chat or go into details, just combat and fighting and attacks. This is apparent in tracks with titles like Bombs, or Battlefields or Anarchist. All self-explanatory tracks that need no dissection or analysis. Just heavy hardcore at its best.

 

Warfare is full of anger and ready to settle scores. I particularly like What you feel, another brilliant example of less text and more sound. Tell me what you feel! That’s an order, soldier, not a question!

All of the songs are short with the majority of them lasting less than 2 minutes. The group from Bratislava packs a punch and must be a force to watch on stage. There are 9 tracks altogether and the album ends with This Fucking World. No comments necessary. Who wants to save this fucking world?

#18 Flork! Reviews: XCES - It's Happening (2022)

 

XCES - It's Happening (2022)

by Flork!

 

Every now and then, I tune into a group that is full of surprises, pleasant ones of course, with a range of diversity in their styles and playing abilities as well as originality, the type of band that forces me to ask: Where the fuck did these guys come from?

XCES is a larger than life industrial/rap/post-punk/post-metal/post apocalyptic group from somewhere in Slovakia, who have released what I gather is their second full album, at least from the info I could find on them, which is short in supply on the internet. But never mind, It’s Happening is in fact a really ‘happening’ gem of electronic samples and sequences that are combined with vocals of an amplitude deep with raw anger and pain, blended from time-to-time with heavy guitars, such as on the tracks cos'Y'R'MOAR'tan and #bork and TRANCE-END-DANCE.

This is for sure a fun album to listen to and easily addictive, and one would likely never guess that the artists were Slovak. And what I mean by this is that not only are the songs all in English (and sung extremely well without any hint of an accent), but that the music itself is so totally unique and original that you wouldn’t find anything similar elsewhere on the Slovak music scene.

Take the title track It’s Happening, for example, a masterpiece of a composition that fuses industrial electronics and heavy guitars with stark crescendos and falls, as well as both male and female vocals. How do you come up with a song like this? You either have a caffeine addiction and unattended ADHD, or, you just love what you do and take it as far as it can go. And when that’s not far enough, you press on with a track like NEHEKSVAHAKENAPA that contains loads of electro bursts and explosions and schizophrenic samples that are reminiscent of Japanese epileptic seizures.

And trust me, it’s not Nine Inch Nails or anything similar in that way. The album is full of monologues, long and short, especially by a robotic female voice with a sexy British accent, who provides us with momentary lapses of sanity, lucid moments of clarity that are cut abruptly as you are plunged into a never-ending fall towards the bottom of a bottomless pit. The whole album is like this, yet ends with Wake-up Everytime! a crunchy and eerie track that ends again with the female lovely repeating: Wake-up Everytime! You have to admit it’s genius, like being somewhere between “Wow!” and “WTF?”

For now, It’s Happening can be found on YouTube and Spotify. Let’s hope we’ll get the chance to see them live in the summer months.

#17 Flork! Reviews: Besna - Zverstvá (2022)

 

Besna - Zverstvá (2022)

By Flork!

What catches my attention right off the bat is the opening few bars of the title track. I just love the soft melodic beauty of the keyboard, slow and soothing, and then it suddenly disappears with an explosion of vocals, drums, and guitar. This is actually the second track of the self-released, debut album by the Slovak post black metal band from Bratislava, Besna. It’s a great tune that contains all the usual elements of black metal music, yet is a level up with great production and amazing incorporation of keyboards riding alongside the high notes of the guitars.

 

I go back and press the play button on the opening track, Ľadovec (Iceberg), and I am immediately sucked into a melodic, yet atmospheric mix of anger and beauty, with the raw fury of the vocals contrasting the skill and production of the instruments perfectly. The third track, Fúga (Fugue) speaks for itself. A masterful contrapuntal composition that is interspersed with moments of heaviness and lightness, as well as fast and slow tempos. Interestingly enough, although I don’t know if this was the artist’s intention, but a Fugue state is characterised by a kind of psychogenic disorder, where one suddenly slips into a temporary amnesiac state with unplanned travel and wanderings. I could be wrong, but this track is definitely reminiscent of such behaviour.

The following tracks, Margita (Margarette) and Revúca (East Slovak town) are both epic melodies that include elements of shoegazing, at least in the former, as Revúca is a heavier and darker, post-metal tune. These two songs contrast each other heavily, with Margita sounding positive and hopeful while Revúca is quite the opposite – doomy and gloomy.

 

Each track hovers around the seven-minute mark, and the album finishes with Spev drozda (Song of the Blackbird), another masterpiece that has a long, slow intro, but undoubtedly breaks into rage anger, a perfect way to end the album and go back and listen to it all over again.

For a debut album, Zverstvá gets high marks for both talent and studio production. The album was released just a few days ago on March 11th, so it was nice to be one of the first to hear it and comment on it. There are about 50 copies of the vinyl available for purchase from the bandcamp.com website, as well as the CD that includes original artwork and an extra foreword to each song.

#16 Flork! Reviews: Obšar - Počornily horŷ, počornily lisŷ (2022)

 

Obšar - Počornily horŷ, počornily lisŷ (2022)

By Flork!

No build-up, no suspense. Počornily horŷ, počornily lisŷ by Obšar opens loudly with the simply-titled opening track Album.  This is a fast-moving and powerful melody that sucks you into an atmospheric production of well-mixed tracks, as well as well-written compositions that are slightly different from the mainstream as far as black metal goes.  It‘s hard to say what this particular song is about, but no matter, it’s definitely an interesting way to kick the rest of the album off. In fact, the entire album is a bit hard to interpret considering how it moves from the centre of the black metal genre to its softer, intimate edges. But I have to admit that this is the first time that I can actually understand most of the words from a black metal vocalist (Note – the entire album is sung in Slovak). Of course the vocals on each of the tracks are deep and raspy, as black metal vocals should be. But these aren’t the typical screams of a constipated Satan or chain-smoking goblins, or even demons who eat air-raid sirens for breakfast. These are songs that are deliberately sung for the listener to hear the meaning of each track loudly and clearly. But don’t get me wrong, they aren‘t clean vocals by any count, at least not until later on in the track Anti, a song with real singing and a somewhat rock-n-roll rhythm (an example of what I guess could be called „black and roll“). It’s possible still, that the band has 2 singers (I have no idea as there is pretty much nothing written about this band on the internet). At times, some of the tracks are complemented with a female back-up, providing that element of an afterlife populated by fallen angels and misery in a beautiful, endless darkness.

 

Like many Slovak black metal groups, Obšar too, draws on folklore legends from the hills and forests of the Carpathian Mountains. The titles are possibly written in old Slovak (or maybe by someone who can’t spell very well) with the content of the stories describing places such as the land under Javorina Pid Javorina (a mountain in the Western Tatras and possibly depicted on the album’s cover) or a white bull Bilyj bŷk. But what makes the band stand out is their ability to make black metal also contemporary, with beautifully-constructed chord progressions and alternating between speed and beat drumming. Two tracks that stand-out for me are Červene sonce and Dovhŷ tŷni, both edgy and powerful and full of majestic ambience amplified 1000 times by the fast drums and weight of the guitars, especially the latter.
 
Overall, Počornily horŷ, počornily lisŷ will not disappoint fans of black metal or any fan of metal for that matter. Počornily horŷ, počornily lisŷ is available on compact disc and can be purchased via the bandcamp.com website, as well as unlimited streaming on the bandcamp app.

#15 Flork! Reviews: Edúv Syn - Mám červené oči, lebo stále plačem (2021)

Edúv Syn - Mám červené oči, lebo stále plačem (2021) 

By Flork!

 

The cool thing about rap music is its rapid evolution over the years. I mean, way back when, like let’s say the early 1980’s, I can remember rap as a beat and lyrically-spoken genre of music that had emerged from poor neighbourhoods around America’s larger cities. On a commercial level, it was the accompaniment to break-dancing that had caught-on quickly with teenagers at that time. It was simple and no musical talent was needed to perform it, just a drum machine and a supply of old LP’s that could be used for the sole purpose of “scratching”. In fact, it laid the groundwork for later DJ music in the 2000s. However, in the early days, it was predominantly performed by black artists such as Run DMC, Ice-T, or Salt n Pepa and also had a political and rebellious element to it that quickly became the voice of black America and black issues (Public Enemy and NWA). In a matter of a couple of years, if not months, rap began incorporating real musical instruments into the compositions, including singers and was no longer performed by solely by black artists. It began incorporating other genres like metal, such as Run DMC and Aerosmith (Walk This Way), the Beastie Boys, Rage Against the Machine, even Faith No More (Epic). In fact, Dee Dee Ramone, one of the founders of American punk, embraced it with Funky Man. Nowadays, rap of course has several of its own sub-genres with one of them being hip-hop, as well as a sub genre of that called “trap”, which contains lyrics that often focus on drug use and urban violence. But let’s fast-forward a bit to the year 2022, to a land far away from America. Let’s transport ourselves to Central Europe.

Since the Velvet Revolution, rap has had a lot of false starts In the Slovak Republic. Of course, there were several rap groups around in the 1990s, such as Rap Steady Crew and JSS (Jednotka Slovenskej Starostlivosti), but there was only a small audience in those days as Slovak listeners were more tuned into the commercial pop and rock music coming from the west. It wasn’t until the 2000s, however, that rap and hip-hop caught people’s attention, especially with the success from Kontrafakt and Rytmus. By this time, the Slovak rap scene had begun to explode with the addition of artists like Kali and Majk Spirit, who have both experienced great commercial success. 

 

But not all Slovak rap is above-ground, nor overly-commercial. Edúv Syn is a Slovak hip-hop/trap/punk duo based in Prague, who released their second full-length album Mám červené oči, lebo stále plačem (My eyes are red because I can’t stop crying) at the end of November last year.  They too have had their share of false starts, releasing their first album in 2019 Karel Gott je mŕtvy keď hralo rádio only to be stuck at home the following year due to the corona virus pandemic. Yet despite just having moved up to Prague and being isolated in a strange city, Matej Myslovič (aka Edúv Syn) still managed to compose several tracks during lockdown, as well as play a few big shows in Slovakia last summer, namely Pohoda on the Ground and Garáže.

Mám červené oči, lebo stále plačem is the result of this isolation and restarts the initial success of the first album. The 15-track album may seem like a lenghty effort, but in fact, it contains less than forty minutes of recording. This is not a bad thing, in fact it is quite intentional, keeping each track below four minutes, or in many cases less than two. No „filler“ noise or long-winded sequencing.  
 
The intro track Deti Kvetín kicks off with an amazing blend of lowFi rhthym and powerful vocals. The beat of this track is both powerful and peaceful with sounds of something like a sitar added to the atmosphere of mystery. Plakala pt. 2 is more subdued and the vocals provided by Arleta give this track enormous depth and beauty. Darkside and Life is Brutal are perfect examples of trap music, dark and honest with English titles, but lyrics in Slovak.

The whole album is amazing, especially the tracks with featured guests like Dušan Vlk Better ako Kamil Peteraj, Simi Slim and Fuest_user Uvidíme ako toto pôjde d’alej, and Karlo Letím. But Matej Myslovič carries his own weight very well, providing powerful vocals to his lyrics that deal with several issues, such as materialism and sexism.

Edúv Syn is definitely a group to keep an eye on in the coming months as they stand at the forefront of the underground rap scene. Summer is not far away and outdoor summer concerts and festivals will abound. Let’s hope that 2022 continues to be good to them.

#14 Flork! Reviews: Krolok - Funeral Winds and Crimson Sky (2022)

Krolok - Funeral Winds and Crimson Sky (2022)

By Flork!

Released not too long ago, Funeral Winds and Crimson Sky by the Slovak trio Krolok is an atmospheric 6-track album that transports listeners to the woods of the Carpathian mountains, an ancient land where the secrets and rituals of the trees and hills are hidden beneath the world on the surface, which is inhabited by wolves, ghosts, vampires, and castle ruins. There is a lingering darkness in these woods, a magical beauty in a scary sort of way, where despite the season, the soft rays of the sun penetrate the forest and create an eerie cathedral effect. Krolok masterfully captures this light-glow in many of their songs, which are interspersed with moments of drama and spooky suspense. This is especially heard in the opening track Black Lore of the Fens, where the keyboards build their quiet suspense up to a crescendo of guitars and heavy drums. The keyboards, by the way, remain up front with the guitars and play an important role throughout the album, often complementing the mid-pace tempo of the melodies. There is no heavy bass sound in any of the tracks, just dark energy with moments of suspense and intensity provided by the keyboard, much like an old Bela Lugosi film with pounding organs and echoes - the cathedral effect is reproduced and visualised through the music.

 

But of course, there is also a wealth of old school black metal that is heard in Towards The Duskportals and The Reptile Abyss Beneath Dowina. Both of these tracks evoke images of dusk falling over the hills, where the cold serenity and safety of the day is replaced by the haunting of the figures lurking behind the trees. Time to get home quickly and lock your doors and windows. Night is beginning and the ghosts and bats are outside revelling in the darkness of the supernatural. High speed drums take over in Unveiled Subterranean Treasures, a great track with amazing studio production that evokes the feeling of a nightmare where you are lost in the woods with nothing to keep you warm or defend yourself. This track abandons the sanctity of the cathedral altogether with surges of fast-paced fury and chaos. All you can do is hide under the covers and pray that it will all be gone by morning.

Like their previous full-length album Flying Above Ancient Ruins (2017), Funeral Winds and Crimson Sky is just a little over 35 minutes, but equally atmospherically charged with emphasis on the quality of the compositions rather than quantity and length. Overall, it is an interesting mix of traditional black metal with elements of homegrown Czech and Slovak black metal that derives heavily from folklore and legends.  This is a great band to check out if you are a black metal enthusiast, especially if you like atmospheric music and crave originality. Funeral Winds and Crimson Sky is available on CD with a limited run that includes an 8-page booklet. It’s also available on  cassette and download from the bandcamp website.

#13 Flork! Reviews: Rozpor - Hrubá Sila (2022)

Rozpor - Hrubá sila (2022)
By Flork!

The great thing about bands like Rozpor is that they continue to produce amazing music and bring attention to social issues, while at the same time having loads of fun. Hrubá sila (Raw Power) is the band’s 8th full-length album that includes several guests, such as the rapper Edúv syn, pianist Jakub Vizner, as well as the Chick2Chick Trio.

Rozpor has been around for several years now, in fact, for more than a couple of decades, but have also seen a few changes in their line-up. In spite of that, they continue to retain their strict anti-fascist stance, maybe even more so now than ever before. Yet they still write great songs that deal with stuff going on in today’s crazy world, especially here in Slovakia.

The album is full of catchy melodies with both heavy and light guitar riffs. There is no experimentation here, as there never is, keeping true to the punk rock and oi! genre of their previous work. The album opens with the title track and acknowledges that raw power is still alive and well and sets the mood and energy level for the songs to follow. Neďaleko od raja (Near Paradise) is a nice tribute to Bratislava, reminding us that geographically, it is situated in the best part of Europe with the beauty of the Little Carpathians and the Danube River offering us our own garden of Eden. The tune itself has great arrangements and makes a good supporting argument to Regi-análna osveta (Regi-anal Enlightenment), where lead vocalist Fabko is obviously sick of the longstanding east-west competition and reminds us that Slovakia is too small for such shit.

As with all their music, the entire album is sung in Slovak, however, it does come with lyric sheets in both English and Slovak. They are all worth reading since they deal with political issues, such as extremists in parliament (Požehnanie od Vsetkých Svätých Kokotov), social change and activism (Benefit nie Charita), homophobia and xenophobia (Dobrá Správa), and of course the omnipresent evil all around us, disguised like a wolf in sheep’s clothing (Zlo).

With 2022 still very much ahead of us, a year where Slovakia finds itself divided by Russia and the USA, vaxers versus anti-vaxers, a society that never seems to fully agree and unite on anything, Rozpor will have no trouble at all finding content and material for future songs and albums. At present, the album is available for download (Uložto) and has 2 videos up on Youtube for Milujeme Vulgarizmy and Dobrá Správa.

#12 Flork! Reviews: Pekelné Kone - Všetko Pominie (2022)

 

Pekelné Kone - Všetko Pominie (2022)

By Flork!

It’s not always doom and gloom. Sometimes there are days when the word of the day is ‘chill’.  And perhaps if you were to sum up in one word Všetko Pominie (Everything Blows Over) the debut release by the Eastern Slovak group Pekelné kone, then ‘chill‘ might be your best choice. These are the types of feel-good tunes that you’d chill with either alone or with a group of friends, and can be listened to everywhere, whether in a bar or on your car stereo.

The 12-track folk-punk-country-blues collection by the Prague-based foursome from Prešov is an interesting accoustic collection of tracks that were predominantly written by the lead singer Tomáš Hricišák in the year 2018, and the demo was prepared with his longtime musical partner and bassist from their former 90s band Nonsense a Zlý Svet, Jozef Zeleňák. However, recording and mixing took a couple of years, with the original intent of releasing a 7-track EP. Later, though, 5 additional tracks were written and recorded in that time, as well as the addition of new members, who now create the present line-up.

When listening to the tracks, I’m reminded quite a bit of some of the legends like Tom Waits and Leonard Cohen, songs that are somewhat poetic in nature, but hardly poems at all, since all the tracks are more about telling stories and sharing experiences.  Tomáš Hricišák is credited with writing all the lyrics and does an amazing job of interpreting his stories in the form of songs that are reminiscent of folklore tales and campfires. The vocals are a combination of spoken word and melody with the rhythm of the bass being its main support. 

 

In a way, the whole album is like being at an apartment party with a half a dozen or so close and new friends. The opening track Ako Tieň (Like a Shadow) is a short, bluesy tune that sets the atmosphere for the evening ahead. It’s a great song and was, in fact, recently released as the third single from the album with a great video that accompanies it (the previous two singles, Nenávidím ťa and Hlasy v Hlave were released independently before being put on the album). The second track, Slovenský Seattle, is a tribute to Prešov and brings the album to a lively level. This continues with the title track Všetko Pominie where the party is now becoming very interesting and a second round of drinks are being poured. Za Horou Za Dolinou (Beyond the Mountain and down the Valley) now has us feeling cozy and relaxed. It’s a bit slower than the previous track, but this is by far my favourite track with great backing vocals and studio production.

The remaining tracks on the album continue with jazz or blues beats and rhythms, with added banjo and mandolin in such tracks like Hlasy v Hlave (Voices in my Head) and Milenial. The party ends much as it began with Srdce (Heart), a Mississippi-jazz style song with definite comparisons to the singing style of Leonard Cohen. But that’s a good thing, since its revival works well with the original Slovak lyrics and music and gives a younger audience a taste of a style that isn’t heard too often anymore.

Judging from the couple of reviews that have already been published since the album’s release (February 2nd, 2022), Všetko Pominie is off to a positive start and hopefully 2022 will be good to the band. The album is available digitally from bandcamp.com 

 

 

#11 Review: Flork! Reviews Owlsilar Gate - Through the Gate of Frost (2021)

Owlsilar Gate - Through the Gate of Frost (2021)

By Flork!

Released not long ago, in fact just last week, the second album by Owlsilar Gate - Through the Gate of Frost is an atmospheric, single-track instrumental composition that evokes images of long, cold winter days and nights, like a journey through a forest with nothing but a frosty boreal sky above and the whispers of the frozen, barren trees to keep you company. You may even feel the beauty of the Northern Lights glowing intensely during moments of deep and sometimes painful thought, or else fading to darkness during the moments when hope seems lost and desperation creeps in filling the void. However you interpret the 23-minute track, there is no denial of its ambient beauty as it transports you along through a lonely, cold, forest path on slow washes of sound and the gentle screams of the wind. 

Although Through the Gate of Frost is similar to the previous album Gate, Far Away it is still very much original in its composition, like a re-imagined continuation of the original journey, still keeping the original elements of the Dungeon Synth genre. But it is far from a copy of the first album and holds it own weight, utilising pristine production and carefully-arranged timing of its keyboards. It isn’t an entirely mellow album, since there are several suspenseful moments where intensity surfaces, yet they too are eventually calmed, almost like a mother whispering a lullaby, soothing the cries of her child.

In fact, as the winds outside howled and slammed into my windows last night, I played the track before turning off the lights and going to sleep. In the morning, and still in the darkness, feeling rested and somewhat comforted, I played the track once more and contemplated the coldness of the world outside. We will all need to dress warmly if we wish to pass through the gate.

Both Through the Gate of Frost and Gate, Far Away are available for purchase on the bandcamp website, either on cassette or a very low-priced download of the digital album.

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You can purchase limited MC cassette here:

https://nomadskydiaries-skyburial.bandcamp.com/album/sky045-owlsilar-gate-through-the-gate-of-frost

#10 Review: Flork! Reviews Vole - Tohle není prdel (2021)

 

Vole - Tohle není prdel (2021)

By Flork!

The resurgence and renewed interest in punk and post-punk here in Central Europe has injected life into an already lively music scene. Vole, a foursome from the Czech Republic, are definitely one of those groups to thank for this. They were formed a mere 5 years ago after the break-up of Hlinomaz and released their third album Tohle není prdel just last October.

Now, if any of you remember, Hlinomaz was a hardcore punk band that was described by their record label Stoned to Death Records as “…… a crude, rude, apocalyptic force that whipped their listeners with lashes of noise and chaos and irritated weak stomachs by the ever-increasing scar on Banán’s forehead (Banán was the lead singer) through which he tried to insert the entire microphone, following the example of Cronenberg's VIDEODROME. Fortunately, the band broke up before he succeeded to do so.” 

They were a great band with lots of noise and screechy vocals, but they weren’t meant to last forever. Nowadays, Hlinomaz’s former members can be found in various groups all over the Czech hardcore scene, but it’s Vole who comes out on top as the result of their dedication to tireless, hard work. What started as a few concerts here and there has resulted in dozens or maybe hundreds of gigs, despite the pandemic situation as well. This has translated into better shows and a better sound in the studio. And what’s cool about their latest album is that they themselves claim that the journey between their second release to this one was “a switch back from metal to punk and rock” (although Dej Bůh Pěstí is a bit of a tribute to their noise punk beginnings). And this is true, its a great experiment with new sounds and beats, all of which somehow magically come together.

 

It's clear from the opening track Byl jednou jeden člověk (There was once a man) that the band has fine-tuned its identity and increased the intensity of its playing. David Vála’s fast and original guitar riffs, where power chords are replaced by chords and melodies produced by the higher notes, stand out with the backing of Ondřej Filípek’s fast drumming. If this combination were an Olympic sport, then Vole would have little trouble getting a gold metal. Emil Prachař’s skillful bass doesn’t just fill in the gaps, but rather balances out and keeps the chaos organized, especially in the last track Džungle. All of this brought to maximum decibels with the vocals of Tomáš Mitura, who pushes the whole intensity as far as possible.

And what are Flork!‘s favourites? Personally, I like Byl jednou jeden člověk since it was the song that really caught my attention. But there are several others that get very high marks. TV and Styl are awesome tunes that remind me of mosh-pits and weekend concerts in dirty and divey venues. Panter has a great beat to it, blending punk, thrash, and metal elements. Byznis/Kovboj, the longest treack on the album is like a wild ride on a bucking bronto, with moments of solo-guitar transitions between the remaining instruments join in again. Kind of like being at a punk rock rodeo. This is where Vole really presents the listener the end-product of their journey of transition and experimentation. It is obvious from the large number of details put into these songs that they‘ve come a long way since Hlinomaz.

Overall, the record has a great flow and tempo throughout, with quick transitions and smooth changes between every track. All ten tracks add up to around 30 minutes of total album time, with only a couple of the tracks lasting a little more than 3 minutes. According to their info, they have 250 vinyl copies for sale, so better get yours quickly. This is definitely a band worth following.

#8 Review: Flork! Reviews FARA - Továreň na odpadky (2019)

Fara - Továreň na odpadky (2019)

By Flork!

 

The first thing you may notice in the first couple of minutes of Koniec Našho Sveta, the opening track of the debut album Továreň na odpadky by the Košice duo Fara, is that there is a certain melodic element that accompanies an air of suspense, as the guitars, bass, and drums join each other until the heavier riffs take over around the 3 minute mark. My level of interest is high, right from the start. There are no vocals in this track, which is ok, and I’m left wondering what the next track will sound like. Depress is a cool transition with repeating riffs and lyrics that are nihilistic in nature. There isn’t actually much singing going on here, but rather more spoken poetry, with one making statements like ‚smrdí tota voda, je to na piču’ while the other singing ‘jednoducho povedane’ and something else which I can’t quite understand. Actually, the entire album is like this, with the third track summing up the overall them: “Nič sa nevyrieši“ (which means something like ‚nothing gets done about it‘ or ‚no resolution‘).  This is not an upbeat album in any way, at least lyric-wise, but it definitely isn’t slow-paced either. The repetitive lyrics may be a bit naive, but this was the intention.

 

By the way, the entire album is sung in Slovak, so it may be a deterrent to those who prefer listening to post-punk industrial in English. In fact, the album isn’t targeted for an international audience, but rather for the Czecho-Slovak market. It gets heavier with more distortion and ‘statement-style’ lyrics that are poignant and witty, which are, unfortunately, only intelligible to speakers of Slovak. It’s like very sophisticated punk, yet it’s fine-tuned and organized with clean vocals where the comments are more deadpan than anthem based.

Nevertheless, it is a fun album to listen to. The production is first-class and the songs themselves aren’t overly-long. Fara uses a good blend of beats and guitar that keep the album’s tempo at an even flow. Several of the tracks just end without notice, no fading, no dramatic thud of the symbols, just a clean break. There are also tracks without lyrics too, or at least not many, such as Sedem rokov v bufete (seven years at the snackbar) or Tak ťažké (so hard). These are great tunes to be played at a party or large hall, where everyone already has a bit of a glow-on and needs to get up and dance a bit.  

The end of the album contains the two best racks: the title track Továreň na odpadky (Waste Factory) and Ranná zmena (Morning Change). There are 14 tracks altogether on Továreň na odpadky with none of them lasting longer than five minutes.

I also need to point out that the album was released in 2019, so I’m not sure what the duo have been up to these days. No matter, I’m sure they are working on something as the pandemic has likely limited their ability to play live shows. Let’s hope 2022 will allow them to get out about and play some gigs.  

#7 Review: Flork! Reviews Drugs - Bude horšie (2021)

Drugs - Bude Horšie (2021) 

By Flork!

 

Well, first of all, Happy New Year to everyone. It’s 2022 and we are going into what I believe is our third year of the prequel to the zombie apocalypse, where some of us are still hoping that things return to the way they once were while others, myself included, anticipate darker things to come. I mean, really, let me be truthful for a moment. Things aren’t getting better despite the encouraging news the media keeps telling us. Perhaps this year we will defeat all the viruses we are currently coexisting with and maybe we will all go back to the office or the classroom. But for many of us, things will never get better, like those who have lost family members, or jobs, businesses, homes, or those who will never get out of debt or see their children or parents or spouses again. As I sit here in the dark in my makeshift home office, I contemplate this for a moment. Now, I don’t want you to think that that Flork! is a complete nihilist, no, that would be misleading, since I do want the best for each and every one of us. However, I try to be realistic. Could it be that the pessimists are right and see the real picture ahead of us, while the rest of us choose to avert our eyes?

 

I take a long sip of my coffee and press play on the first track of Bude Horšie (It’ll get Worse) by Drugs, which is called Ničota (Meaningless or futile) and think, how appropriate it is to be listening to this on the second day of the new year. This is an in-your-face track with great riffs and timing. The intro of the second track Neznaboh immediately turns from suspenseful mystery to full-on assault and then comes full-circle. I listen to the remaining tunes and conclude that Pach (Stench) is my favourite track on the album. This is the longest song on the album (just over 5 minutes) with the other seven tracks coming in at less than 4 minutes. But I also have to give credit to the final track Plano which ends the album beautifully, and not on a positive note (note the title of the album).

Bude Horšie (It’ll get Worse) by Drugs is a must for the any death metal head’s collection. The entire album is played with extreme talent and fuses death metal, black metal, and crust beautifully. I don’t have much information on this group, as all I can tell from the bandcamp.com website is that they come from Eastern Slovakia, but there is no doubt they carry an amazing sound. The album was recorded as well as mixed and mastered at Tetradrot studio in Vranov nad Topľou and released just a few weeks ago in December, 2021.

I play the album once more and I’m still intrigued. These guys have loads of potential and can compete on any level with bands from anywhere around the world. But of course, playing good music isn’t a competition, it’s about expressing the dark and bright sides of ourselves in a language that doesn’t need words. Oh my, I’m becoming poetic. Bude Horšie masterfully foreshadows what’s to come in the upcoming year. Raw, hard and brutally honest, Bude Horšie is a power-packed punch in the face, a wake-up call to those led by false hope. After all, things usually get worse before they get better.

#4 Review: Flork! Reviews Plastery - Yes, of corpse (2021)

 Plastery - Yes, Of Corpse

By Flork!

 
Sometimes I imagine those precious seconds that follow untimely death (death isn’t often timely), while the soul is making its departure from its earthly existence to an unknown destination beyond, either to heaven or hell, but most likely hell, it glances back for one final look to see its life-drained body, now a near-corpse, perhaps lying on the table of a operating room theatre or on the green of a Florida golf course, and witnesses a crowd of people stand back while a surge of electricity is pulsed through it by someone knowledgeable of using a defibrillator. For sure, the reawakened corpse jolts upright and gasps with air and finally screams.

 

This is how I feel while listening to Yes, Of Corpse, the second full-length album by Plastery, a death metal group from the Central Slovak town of Zvolen. Each of the tunes on this 11-track album is full of electric awakening, giving death metal an interesting and fresh heartbeat. I mean, there is no doubt that this is death metal in its purest form, but what I love about this album (and the band in general) is that it deviates just enough while staying within its boundaries, but still provides an original collection of horror-metal to enjoy, and not just on Halloween.

Beautifully produced with exceptional mastering, Yes, Of Corpse comprises 11 tracks that are all under four minutes long, with two bonus tracks, Černozem and Area 51 that are available after purchase.  Its actually too bad that the aforementioned tracks aren’t included with the others, since they are by far the best releases Plastery has released to date, especially Area 51, which is a collaboration with Marturos, a young, heavy-melodic group from Prievidza.

Yes, Of Corpse is definitely the wake that follows their first release From a Dark Grave… Fans will not be disappointed and will continue to enjoy the ongoing funeral party.


 

#3 Review: Flork! Reviews Goatcraft - Spheres below (2020)

Spheres Below – Goatcraft
By Flork!

photo: Goatcraft official Facebook page (Kosak Photo)

Perhaps the hardest part of being a human is cutting through the layers of crap and finding a personality in someone.  I mean, even deep, deep down somewhere in the most hardened of criminals, or criminally insane, or just purely insane (for the rest of us who are currently not, or have yet to be institutionalized) you can always find a person buried under a heavily-fortified defense system. And often, or perhaps most of the time, the hurt and pain we accumulate over the years traps us beneath all those walls and barriers, and the suffocation and suffering we feel is like being trapped alive 20 feet underground in a concrete coffin. And yet, for some unknown or inexplicable reason, inside this paralysis and eternal nightmare we can’t wake-up from, we feel the safest. So, when I heard Spheres Below by Goatcraft for the first time, I knew there would be some digging involved. 

I say this because the album, in fact, took several years to reach the surface. According to their info on bandcamp.com, all of the tracks and lyrics were written between 2011 and 2017, with the album itself being recorded in 2017 and eventually released at the end of 2020. Yes, there have been demos and certainly loads of concerts in that time, their last show before the pandemic being in Pisek, the Czech Republic, but who knows why it took so long to come out, perhaps they are just perfectionists.

I admit that I needed some help when I wrote this review. Why you may ask? Because I didn’t like Spheres Below at first, maybe giving it a “not great, not terrible” opinion at best, but later, after listening to it a few times, it started to grow on me. The only review I could find for this album was on the Czech Webzine/Database of Hard and Heavy Music – Hard Music Base. For the purpose of keeping the review in English, here is the Google translation of the first part of the review:

The last devotees to the honest, blacksmith craft are slowly disappearing into the abyss of time. Rough, well-done work is replaced by machine-controlled, belt production. Surviving, lifelong defenders of the black cult often stand at a crossroads today. Some are lured by the tinsel of money and fame, others go back, others remain standing still, others travel without the possibility of returning to an unknown place, and others show an attempt at invention by repainting black on white. You can only frighten an old grandmother or a bitter virgin with Beelzebub. You will be happy to mate with the joint in papule and a bottle in hand for the already millionth clone Mayhem, but you are not looking for a deeper meaning in that. You patiently listen to the philosophical agitation, urging you to wake up, until you get a taste for a booze of liquor or a perverted fuck with a naughty bitch. All patience to listen bursts at the moment of finding out that they the mudrlants themselves do not know what they really want, and their wisdom is a mere attempt to make a significant difference from others. 

The last line (mudrlant is the Czech word for an intellect or philosopher) supports what I just wrote above. Loads of bands get to a point of no return where they either give in to the industry, in turn becoming its slaves, or give up completely and go home. Those that do give in get so lost they become ghosts of their former selves. Yet Goatcraft is hardly at that point yet, in fact their label, In League with Satan Productions has no bands signed to it and is likely their own label.  Although Spheres Below can’t be compared to previous releases theoretically, it can be compared to other bands as the author continues:

Bratislava's GOATCRAFT turned from that crossroads on a more sympathetic path that will eventually take you back to hell.

Well, let’s say I’m not too sure about that. True, there is no bling nor tinsel or money and fame, that is correct. But Goatcraft is a typical black metal group, with loads of similarities to Mayhem, since all black metal are descendants of them.  This is what I mean about getting past all the layers and finding a personality. But I guess that’s the point, this is what black metal is all about and deviating from true and trusted formulae would only lead you astray from the style. After all, the genre was born due to a build-up of layers of defense. There is simply no room for deviant experimentation and you cannot adapt this form of music to other audiences, otherwise you would be burned alive at the stake. 

 

Spheres Below is a mixture of long and short tracks, 11 of them in total, some of it extremely good like The Obsidian Halls and especially Kolossal Katastrophic Kollapse, Putrid Stench of Existence or Horrendous Light, while other tracks are bit repetitive at times (The Beast of Hell), and the less-than-a-minute tracks are only filler between the longer ones. The drumming is solid, for sure, and the production above-average, although the transition between the first two tracks was done a bit poorly, with a split-second break heard between the two (I would have kept it all as one entire track). Otherwise, whoever mastered and mixed this album did a great job.

I think this album will satisfy Goatcrafts’s followers anyways (the band does have a considerable following considering the small size of the market in Slovakia) and Spheres Below does have a good chance at attracting new fans from abroad. Goatcraft plays their instruments well and considering how long it took to realise this album, Spheres Below gets an A+ for hard work, as well as adapting their live sound to the studio.

#2 Review: Flork! reviews 2 Manky Hookers and a Racist Dwarf - Demo (2021)

2 Manky Hookers and a Racist Dwarf - Demo (2021)
By Flork!

(photo source: Facebook page)

I know that I’ve heard that line before, yes, wait a moment… of course, Brendan Gleeson’s wry exclamation from the movie In Bruges: “Two manky hookers and a racist dwarf, I think I’m heading home”. Obviously, someone must have thought “What a great name to call a punk rock band!” and thankfully someone at some point did, a young group of punk rockers from Bratislava, a group I am eager to listen to, who upon hearing their demo remind me that punk’s not dead. 

2 Manky Hookers and a Racist Dwarf is one of those groups who transports me back to a time long past, way back to the 1980s in the midst of Duran Duran and MTV, when kids wore eyeliner (males more than females) and used hairspray instead of gel, when punk rock, like real punk rock (Piccadilly Circus and CBGB), which was accompanied by an anarchist lifestyle and heavy drug usage, was taboo and antisocial, although some bands back then like The Clash or PIL did take it to a commercial level. Punk emerged from the 1970s into the 1980s at a time when young people were beginning to identify themselves in American and Canadian high schools based on their musical tastes, such as New Wavers, Metal Heads, Bat Cavers, and so on, or the Preps (Preppy kids who dressed somewhat conventionally and listened to Bryan Adams or Madonna, aka the popular crowd).  But there were also a few punks around, skinny kids with mohawks (or faux-hawks for the less-daring like myself), who smoked and drank and skipped class and identified as anarchists. They wore cut-off jean jackets with holes in their black skin-tight jeans and safety pins in their ears, modelling themselves after Sid Vicious or Johnny Rotten. They had few friends other than their own kind and were regarded as fuck-ups who got Fs in math class and physics and were feared by everyone, even by the music genres mentioned above. 

Anyways, I’m rambling again, too full of nostalgia and perhaps a touch of ADHD. I play the first track off the demo by 2 Manky Hookers and a Racist Dwarf and I’m blown away. The track Tsunami is such a cool song, beginning with Brendan Gleeson’s infamous line, and then I’m captivated by the singer’s voice. I don’t know her name, but she has just rocked my world and I am intrigued and need to hear more. I won’t be able to sleep tonight or the rest of the week. I’m quickly addicted. The song is over too quickly, running for just over 2 minutes like all the tracks on the demo (the whole compilation lasts just under 12 minutes). Track number 2 Rožky is equally amazing and it too leaves me wanting more. The remaining tracks, Vírus, Feminista, Šikana, and Samota, all one-word titles like the opening tracks, inspire mosh pits, riots, and anarchy. They are all great songs that are backed by strong talent and experience, a band that knows what they are doing.

2 Manky Hookers and a Racist Dwarf have an extremely tight sound filled with honest and raw energy, punk music that fuses into postpunk thrash, or crust, a product from the underground punk scene of the previous decades that lives on in the 2020s and is thankfully played here in Slovakia. The studio production and mastering are also top-notch, even the simple artwork seems appropriate.

This is an amazing band with loads of talent in their veins and I can’t wait to see them live. 2 Manky Hookers and a Racist Dwarf may never make it into the Top 40, nor get airplay on Fun Radio, but so what? This band doesn’t need any help to go far in the world of punk rock. If this were Bez Servitky, they would definitely get 10 out of 10 and hopefully invite me back to dinner someday.