Bödel Dödsbringaren LP
When you have a visibly decaying (very) grim reaper on the cover of an album by a Swedish punk band, you can bet your one good kidney that they are going to unleash dark and heavy galloping hardcore for the masses. Well, your kidney is safe, because BÖDEL plays straightforward, beefy käng with enough shades of D-beat speed to keep things interesting for twenty minutes. It sounds how it is meant to: relentless, punishing, and energetic. Let’s not D-beat around the bush here, because BÖDEL does not endeavour to innovate and modify a formula that has been working since a bunch of scruffy kids came up with the systematization of a very specific beat in Stoke-on-Trent in 1980. Know who I mean? In the grand spectrum of the D-takt, I would place these Göteborg punks somewhere around early VICTIMS, WARVICTIMS, or GEFYR for a modern reference, with a great, heavier production highlighting the unstoppable vibe of the music. A couple of moments of the LP suggest a fondness for the more epic, moodier side of WOLFBRIGADE, which I do not disapprove of. Very classic and predictable but in a good way, and the fantastic female vocals, angry and manic on the verge of explosion, do take the band to the Premier League of käng hardcore in my opinion. A very enjoyable album that undeniably stands as one of this year’s strongest instances of this peculiar subgenre.