Avskum En Annan Värld Är Möjlig LP
What can one ideally expect from a new AVSKUM album? In 2023, what should a lover of käng and D-beat expect from an established yet humble hardcore band? It’s not like there is any shortage of this specific sound today. Because of the unstoppable march of music streaming worldwide, there are probably more active Scandicore-inspired bands now than ever. A recent study revealed that, in some countries, there are more S-beat bands than there are working hospitals, which is saying a lot about the state of public health services. You could argue that, with the large amount of solid käng bands, the world may not need a new AVSKUM album, and that’s without mentioning that I am seriously running out of storage space for my collection of D-beat records. Besides, haven’t we all often been disappointed with newer records of “hardcore legends”? And yet, it’s not like the band vanished from all radars since the ’80s—in fact, AVSKUM’s output has been quite solid since 1998 (I’d argue that everything they did was quite good, with Punkista being my least favourite). Still, they have not released anything since the ferocious Uppror Underifrån in 2008 which is a long time in punk years. So why should you consider getting En Annan Värld Är Möjlig? Precisely because AVSKUM always sounds exactly like AVSKUM and doesn’t try to be something they are not. Forget your overproduced hardcore or fakely raw bands, AVSKUM still plays direct, DISCHARGE-oriented political käng hardcore with classic, simple but effective riffing and song structures and a rocking heaviness that has come to characterize their approach. They sound even closer to DISCHARGE and orthodox D-beat bands like MEANWHILE. In addition to the band’s tasteful musical classicism, the vocals are what set the band apart for me. Gunnar has always been one of my favourite Swedish hardcore singers, as the tone of his voice and his distinct prosody manage to express raw, spontaneous anger as well as a rough-hewn emotional tunefulness. He is both shouting and singing and has been doing so since the band’s first EP in 1984. This balance between strictly canonical Swedish dis-oriented hardcore and a highly recognizable vocal style is what makes En Annan Värld Är Möjlig predictably great and AVSKUM quietly memorable.