Another day, another new band to me despite being around for a decade. They play, apparently, punked up black n roll, hail from Bern and sing in Barndutsch which is a Swiss/German dialect. This is also a rerecording of their debut.
Well ‘Hass Musig’ just kind of jumps in with a deep, primitive thrash punk riff and growled vocals. Its spirited and a little melodic hook briefly, a nice low-end power to the band even if the drums sound a bit over-triggered (again, for the record, I’m not saying they are triggered just the production makes it sound very much like it). For a thrashy number like this it goes on a bit too long for me though, sections repeated to no advantage when short and sharp would have been better. Follow up ‘Toddfigga’ is pretty much the same too: Slightly downtuned sound, a little bass bounce and metal lead break to justify that black n roll tag but really the song is just OK. Nothing wrong, nothing at all but I just don’t get excited.
In the end and after repeated listens that is the formula and the problem here. It’s all very competent but very much drifts into one wall of sound.
Until the closing bonus track ‘Wauscha Wii’. Acoustic guitar ushers in a weird melancholy and some lovely light drumming. Then cometh the riff and the half-spoken vocals with a chaotic, gang style backing and a twist into a storm riff. This is great, it opens up into a much more black n roll riff and vocals and, dare I say it, a little sway in the direction of the mighty Slegest. This track is also seven minutes long and does not outstay its welcome. In the end maybe that’s it; their song-writing has improved markedly over the intervening years. I hope this is right as this final song is, frankly, a little magnificent. Great varied vocals, superb lead breaks, neat tempo changes and buckets of atmosphere.
On the basis of that I’ll look out for newer stuff but for this album, sadly apart from that final song, I’ll pass.
(5/10 Gizmo)
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