Reviews

Zann's

Disasseln Wohin Soll’s Denn Heute Gehen? LP

This album is as dark and hopeless as the miserable times we are inevitably crawling towards. DISASSELN does not strike me as the sort of band you would listen to on your way to the beach on a sunny day, which is fine by me, as spending an afternoon in the sand in uncomfortable trunks surrounded by rude, loud holidaymakers sounds like a Dantean circle of hell. This band hails from Bavaria, Germany, a region that cannot be said to be renowned for its punk bands (although I heard times were changing), and plays modern stenchcore with an indulgence in rotten death metal. This first album Wohin Soll’s Denn Heute Gehen? (where, indeed) is classically executed with that mid-paced D-beat that makes you want to ride the wasteland. I enjoyed it more on a second listen because of its super gruff vocals—mostly in German—reminiscent of a disgruntled, zombified bear, and the overall vibe and groove of a work that I would gladly qualify as “rotten crust metal” (it’s already copyrighted, so don’t bother). I wish they had written some slower, more epic old school crust numbers as well, and the LP sounds a tad redundant at times, but this has largely to do with my moderate love for death metal, and the band does lie more on the stenchcore side of things (probably because they can’t play well enough to play proper metal). I can imagine this lot sharing the stage with TERMINAL FILTH, DOWNWINDER, or the mighty CANCER SPREADING. A solid album for stench lovers.

Royal Scum Human Gallantry EP

This is a perfect example of a cover being a poor illustration of the music included on the record. In terms of semiotics, using a rather gruesome black-and-white picture of a horse being hung on a deck points to growling, nihilistic grindcore, but ROYAL SCUM from Hamburg does not belong to that school, rather playing heavy and dark crusty hardcore with some moody melodies. The band is actually more of a collective and does not have a fixed lineup, so I do not know if the members of this version of the band were around in the ’00s, but I would bet they were because ROYAL SCUM has that typical quite well-produced neocrusty sound that was so popular back then. It would be far-fetched to claim that they stand as an all-out FROM ASHES RISE-type band, but early/mid-’00s ACURSED or UNKIND come to mind, although they do not sound quite as bleak, and the vocal delivery in English—as well as the use of several angry singers—makes me think of US bands (like ANTIPRODUCT, maybe?). With ROYAL SCUM being pro-vegan, I assume the cover is meant to reflect human cruelty toward animals, and I would guess the band is not too keen on the monarchy (even if Germany, besides Franz Beckenbauer, has not had a king for a while). On the whole, Human Gallantry is a pretty solid listen if you enjoy this sort of politically-driven, heavy, angry hardcore with dark melodies, and the EP works well and does perfectly what it set out to do.