Here's some unexpectedly sludgy/doomy metallic hardcore/punk from Germany with a really dense recording and ultra strained, snarling female vocals that all ends up sounding quite different from the norm. The guitars are a little too muddy for their own good, so the guitars and bass basically lump together in a grating, churning mass while the tight percussion falls to the distance and the higher, more textured screams rise to the surface. On rare occasion when the guitars take a more caustic turn from the chunky palm-muting they definitely get much louder and allow the plunky basslines a little more breathing room, but I'd have to say that the recording is a bit of a weak link here. It's surprisingly crisp and clear, but they need to get a warmer sense of crunch and sustain into that guitar tone for sure. From a writing standpoint most of the tracks are generally midpaced with thick, dissonant riffing and an excellently central vocal performance. On several occasions the drums speed up to a more frantic level than the guitars to add some contrast, but for the most part a lot of the tracks sound the same due to the band sticking with similar sounding tempos and vocal arrangements. "Reflection" gets a bit more creative with its riffing and definitely focuses more on sort of a churning sludge undercurrent that helps it stand apart from the other material, even going so far as to include a nice clean break that comes very unexpected, so I'd like to hear more variety like that explored elsewhere. "Beautify" also comes across as a bit warmer and grittier in terms of the guitar tone, which helps the pounding power chords jump out a little more, so it's easy to see that a more efficient set of tones could really add some force to these songs, and that would help overcome the similarities between several of the tunes. The record comes in a great looking black and white sleeve with awesome artwork and nice looking lettering to boot, while inside is a second sleeve to house the record with lyrics and whatnot on the outside. The language barrier seems to prevent some of the lyrics from being quite as bleak as they're shooting for, but you definitely get the idea with content like, "There are no happy endings ever happening, Every way through life is soaked from tears, sweat and blood, Only in books written of beauty and movies of happiness makes us believe it exists, Accept that our own life sucks, Sinking in sorrow, Dying, weltering in your own blood." This is a promising EP for sure, and I'm really digging the vocals, so I'd love to hear more from this band, but without a more powerful recording or a little more diversity in the songwriting they're not quite maximizing their talents. Several of the tracks on side B are certainly getting there, though!
[Trujaca Fala]
Running time - 20:00 (approximately), Tracks: 6
[Notable tracks: Reflection, Beautify]
Trujaca Fala - http://www.trujacafala.com
