Drastika Warmongers 12″
I had no idea this band even existed until their generous attribution to yours truly. I am a bit torn about this one. On the one hand, I really want to love Warmongers, not just because this Swedish project has members of COUNTERBLAST and WARCOLLAPSE, but above all because they offer something different and, dare I say it, bring some originality to a crust buffet where you always find the same dishes. Is this album an absolute success? Well, I feel a little traitorous for saying it, but not completely. DRASTIKA’s plan is rather ambitious, although it cannot be said to be completely new, either. The band plays some sort of dark and heavy, old school doomy industrial crust (“post-crust”? “stenchgrunge”?) that does bring to mind songs from the two aforementioned bands but also SPINE WRENCH, the almighty DEPRESSOR, or even the oft-overlooked SONIC VIOLENCE. I bloody love the idea, and the songwriting itself often hits the mark (I am a sucker for the synth part), but I feel the recording is lacking in heaviness and the production does not really highlight the band’s very real strengths (but then it can’t be easy to make the drum machine sound right). Not as solid as it deserves to be, even though fans of mid-paced apocalyptic crust should check it out.