Obscene Extreme Festival takes place in Trutnov, Czech Republic, for more than 20 years now. It started as a birthday bash party for one man, namely Curby, the man responsible for the organization of one of the best extreme music festivals in the world. This is a festival which has grindcore in the front and some crust and death metal added for good measure here and there in the line-up. Also, the festival grew big from one small diy festival every year, but still retaining that diy spirit and all visitors being one big happy family, how they say, freak friendly family. Through interviews with Curby himself, many band members and Curby˙s friends, from Bilos(Malignant Tumour), Jan(Agathocles), Barney (Napalm Death) and so on, we find out the amazing strength of will to keep the festival alive, beginnings in tape trading and sending letters vie post service, going to gigs, making friendships, still remaining fair priced vegan and extreme music freak friendly festival. I love the part when Curby explains how all members of this family work in Obscene Extreme, handling merch, helping and how every citizen of Trutnov got used and made friends with bunch of so called freaks and free people from around the world. I was never there, but after seeing this inspiring awesome documentary I might just go there.
Remember Elm Tree Circle? We already featured this band from Germany on the pages of this zine. Well they released new album with Krod Records and it was about time that I have a listen and try to write a review for this zine.
This new album contains 10 songs and the music style is in the same vein as before, being a fine mixture of emotional pop punk/punk rock with some indie and even a bit noise influences in the songwriting. The lyrics are poetic and personal and the music speaks for itself. What? Nice melodies, harmonies and not annoying vocals. The singer can ruin everything in this kind of punk rock, when the vocals are too crying and too gnarly, but here the singer sounds emotional, but not too cheesy, so it is another point for this band. So, if you are a fan of such music go get this one. My personal favorites: All About You, Settle In, Walking on Doom.
WTF Records continues to release great records, keeping the fire of both European and worldwide hardcore burning and being strong. This time it is time for Ammo to grace the pages of this zine. Ammo are from M-Town and this is their debut full length out now. This band plays rapcore and if I must compare it to some bands it would be Biohazard, Downset, Bodycount….meaning metalized hardcore guitar riffs, grooves, aggresive street punk influenced song parts and dual rapping vocals adding to the heaviness and streetwise smartness and toughness. This is a music for going out, drink some beers with your crew and smell the streets of your town and having a nice night in the concrete jungle of your town or city. For me personal favorite is About Time having nice and catchy guitar melody in the background of the song and acoustic ending, but also the title track featuring guest vocals of German ghetto metal rapper Daniel Gun is awesome too. Daniel also provides guest vocals for Pork Chops. I am usually not an avid fan of this kind of hardcore, but this one is a powerful debut record. Go get it!
