Reviews

Santa Diabla

Desolat Elegance is an Attitude… To Shit On LP

Massive and fierce debut full-length from Austria’s DESOLAT. Ghosts of early-century European metallic crust emerging as a fully formed modern beast. Thick guitars ripped from ’90s noise rock drive mid-paced riffs that swing hard, until the vocals sever all connection to hope and DESOLAT really settles into their bleak reality. That reality is a world where the sounds of GNU and UNSANE and THEMA 11 and ZEROID all offer an escape from hopelessness by displaying aural wounds in the open. I haven’t heard anything like this in a long, long time…and I’ve never heard this. That’s the highest praise.

Inner Conflict At Any Time LP

INNER CONFLICT is back with their first LP since 2010’s Nachhause, and first release since 2018’s First They Take Manhattan Then They Take Kalk EP. This Köln, Germany-based melodic hardcore group has a lot of music in their larder, having formed in the early ’90s, yet they still present a raw, powerful sound on this recording. They don’t incorporate a double bass pedal—which I’m very happy about—and therefore stay more on the punk side of the dial, while ranging into emotive, tech-y guitar riffs and Jenny’s resonant voice carrying lovely harmonies with male bandmates. You like this type of thing or you don’t, you’ve known the band for years or are just passing by—either way, props given to a group still putting out music 30 years on. Pretty rad.