Lucta : "Eterna Lotta"

 

This crusty punk band from Italy brings it with a darker cloud over their heads. The songs are short bursts of angry exclamations. Sometimes the riffs managed to clamp down on tension, most of the time, it's just an outburst. The production is raw, but it brings a charm to their overall sound. The guitar tone is pretty bleak and sounds great. I am four songs in before I realize how much of a one-trick pony their singer is as she shouts all the lyrics in her native tongue. Normally this would be a case of more of a sound dialed in than songwriting, but they somehow keep a balance. It is just one of those happy accidents where everything somehow falls into place. 

They offer more of an uptempo beating on "Incubus" which has some darker layers, which is fitting considering what the song's subject matter would be. They prove they can get the job done in one minute just fine. When their anger is more deliberate and they are using things like taunt palm muted riffs to get the point across they are working at the top of their game. At times the guitars flirt with chaos, but they largely fall tightly in place even when bringing the chaos. 

There are moments when they just collapse into convention. The second half of the album finds more of the songs adhering to a formula steering their energy toward this sort of thing. The title track closes the album and it's thankfully more deliberate. I will round this album down to an 8.5 , which still puts them above most punk bands these days, They capture the right mood more often than not. This dropped on Static Shock Records

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Casual Worship : "s/t"

This is a weird one that reminds me of the Butthole Surfers, if they had more of a middle ground between "Locust Abortion Technician" and "Independent Worm Saloon". The album opens with more of an apocalyptic crust aggression. This might fool you into thinking these guys are a metal band. Truth be told you begin to hear that much like the Butthole Surfer's it's only a dynamic they use. "Kevin Bacon" proves this point as the drums are way to peppy for metal and there is more of a reckless punk attitude. In fact the song itself is a little too happy for me.  "Crawler" finds things darkening back up again. The opening guitar riff being more ominous. There is more of Mudhoney grunge feel. This could have fit right in with some of the cooler music that came out of the early 90s. The spastic punk they launch into before giving more of a hammering on "We Like To" feels more like an idea for a song than one full realized. They use their frantic energy to push you past this fact.

They continue to try and bull doze past you with manic glee until it comes to the more commanding bass line of "Human Vapor". The vocals are obligatory mumble in the background. They snarl out with a crazed desperation when the song explodes as the brooding verse indicates it should. "Slop City" kinda rants with a bouncing dissonance much like the previous songs. They are not the Butthole Surfer in the sense that the Butthole Surfer could mess with you and make noise, but put it in the context of a song that you not only wanted to listen to but was not like their other songs, as things become a little uniform here.

I like the thought behind "Quitters Inc", as it's one of the album's better songs. I'll give this album a 7.5. These guys have a lot of potential and when they hit the mark it's a fucking bulls eye, meaning maybe two out of eight songs are stellar, leaving the others to sometimes carry great moments and at other times descend into rambunctious noise. To some extent this is the point , though I think some maturation in the song writing process is in order.