... swedish and brazilian brothers in arms...

PORRADA & FRONTLASH - "PATRIOTIC PASSION" ("Dim Records"; LP & CD):

That's some split record stuff released by the german label "Dim Records" back in the days of 2003, so you see, it's already truly 'a little bit older' right now, haha, but I don't care about this 'fact' that much at all, like you all should know by reading my blog, and after I could imagine that some of you guys had missed this split back in the days and also until this day, yehp, so now here comes the review to make sure you know at least 'something' about it. When I bought this record some years ago I've known nothing of the featured bands, but after I liked what I got to read about it, knowing that the label normally just puts out good and even much better noise, I also liked the artwork, and the record was finally out there to get for a very cheap price I decided to get it, and yes, what shall I say, I'm something of a little bit of a nerd, haha, so I just bought the LP as well as the CD, haha. Side A or Part One's owned by the brazilian hardliners PORRADA. I don't know much more about them, so expect nothing about their background now, just something 'bout their music. Eleven tracks they are serving to us, all recorded back in 2002 somewhere in Brazil. Six songs of this eleven tracks are cover tunes, and covers of the likes of THE VARUKERS, ANTISECT, LAMA, the almighty DISCHARGE, PARISANS, and the great ANTICIMEX. By reading the bandnames you should or at least could already get a pretty good impression of what a kind of musick they're playing here. A very dirty and noizy combination of old school D-Beat or Crustcore and some sick twisted old style Hardcore Punk. But all played not too fast, more mid paced at all, and not at least this 'circumstances' are bringing a lot of Metal in it, the old school way of some mid paced Death/Thrash Metal (comparable to the very early SEPULTURA, hm, maybe it's a brazilian trademark, haha) to point it out. Very sick and dirty, 'swampy' and crumpled, nodular and odd, with attributes of this kind you can describe their musick very well. Very mangy banging guitar work, grumpy and creaking bass playing, boisterous rumbling drums, as well as gruff and grim vocals that cover a wider distance from more or less 'normal' Crustcore caterwaul singing to bitter evil Death Metal grunts, these are the cornerstones of the musick of this band. Nice stuff, if you ask me, all good and fine, but this mostly mid paced old school Metal D-Beat/Crustcore bastard that PORRADA are playing is on the long run just not exciting enough to grap me over the complete distance of the eleven tracks, the songs just sound after listening to four or five tracks just to uniform like, just the last two or three songs will make you wake up again. It's a pity, because the first songs are starting really, really strong, but they are lacking the abilities to write really grapping songs over the distance. So it's just a solid musical offering that PORRADA are giving us to feed our ears with. Ah, to the lyrics I really can't say anything at all, 'cause I just can't speak or understand portuguese, and the listed english titles seem not to be the original titles (oh whoah, what a clever guy I am, right, haha;-)...), but how-ever, I can imagine that songs like "MARCHING TO PROTEST", "LIBERTY", "KEEP THE DIGNITY" and "TERROR AGAINST TERROR" could carry some good issues and values to us, but on the other side I'm not so sure if I want to know what they are singing about in songs like "BRAZILIAN BLOOD", "SCUM!" or "NOTHING (MIGRANTS INVASION)", haha, if you know what I mean;-). All in all PORRADA do get not more or less than six out of ten points, 'cause it's just solid stuff, and that's what just solid stuff gets here on this blog. Okay, now to Side B or Part Two, and that's owned by the swedish Hardcore roughnecks of FRONTLASH. And, yeahr, that's a great band!!! Roaring out of the streets of Stockholm city, and bringing us a devastating and atomizing, fresh Hardcore music that really knows truly to convince. A great sound, named by them as Stockholm Hardcore. Pretty much influenced by New York Hardcore of the likes of AGNOSTIC FRONT, SICK OF IT ALL, WARZONE, MADBALL, and also some CRO-MAGS influences. But all played much heavier and also some notes more metallic, and, what's most important, all vey stand-alone played and coming with a strong and very authentic Skinhead and Working Class background to us. All very butal and harsh played, crunchy and tight, yeahr, and the guys of FRONTLASH know how to fuckin' play their instruments and also how to write awesome good Hardcore songs. Just great!!! Test their songs "THE MARCH OF THE FRONTLASH CREW (HARDCORE VILLAINS)", "STOCKHOLM HARDCORE", "TOGETHER" (antiracist message, if I get it right, about unity between black and white), "WORKING CLASS", "SH99", and "SKINHEAD PRIDE". It's just a great Hardcore sound that really rulez okay!!! Great, yeahr, and also very cool!!! You should listen to them, if you're into Hardcore music of the good and even better kind!!! They give us also a very good cover of the WARZONE classic "JUDGEMENT DAY", and with the swedish version of their track "A WORLD OF PAIN", now called "EN DÖENDE VÄRLD" in swedish, there's also an exclusive bonus that you'll find solely on this record. FRONTLASH do give us also a bunch of very good lyrics, yes, very good job also on the lyrical front. FRONTLASH do get nine out of ten points at all, and that's more than just justified at the end of what day ever. Then the LP as well as the CD comes in a very good artwork (I really love the cover drawing, hm, but Odin on a cover of a record called "PATRIOTIC PASSION" that features a brazilian band... strange world, I mean, did the vikings really came to Brazil at all, hm, but maybe after I've once listened to some fascist jackass that was seriously saying that Reggae is and always was White Noise 'cause the vikings once brought the precursor/ancestor music/sound with them to Jamaica when they first discovered America then Odin's offsprings maybe also made it to Brazil one day, haha), but what sucks is that we get no proper informations, no lyrics, no bandpictures, no what-so-ever, just promotion for other label releases. Okay, I totally see the necessarity to promote your label work and releases, but if this promotion stuff is all what your releases give to us it's a little bit of nothing with weight, if you understand what I mean. But okay, how-ever, but both bands bring their tracks to us in a solid and good production sound. The LP is coming in black vinyl with some few 'splatter effects' in dark, dark grey, and yeahr, if you still can get it (it was limited to just 500 copies worldwide), then get the LP. What a little bit sucks when it comes to the CD version is the 'fact' that the 'times of the changes between the songs' (can't express it somehow better right no, sorry...) are filled with cracking noise and that the tracklist is not correct (it's the same tracklist as of the LP, but there it's correct). But okay, that should not stop you if you want to buy this record but not owning any LP player. And yes, you should get this record because of the great FRONTLASH, and of course also PORRADA have some valuables to offer to us. If you're into (Skinhead) Hardcore, and also old school dirty and rotten (and politically maybe not that much correct at all...) metallic D-Beat/Crustcore music, then try to get this nice angry split release, and yes, should be also interesting for the Metal guys of you out there, not at least because of the PORRADA side/part. PORRADA call six out of ten points their own, FRONTLASH nine out of ten points, so now you'll see what's the final outcome of this split record... (7,5 of 10 points)

(I did not manage to find anything about PORRADA on the web, sorry, but here's the link to the MySpace page of the great FRONTLASH: http://www.myspace.com/frontlash - also no videos found, neither of the one nor the other band, sorry guys.)