| CD REVIEW Concrete Block |
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Band: Concrete Block Torino based Italian Hardcore band Concrete Block was formed in early 2007 from the remnants of two bands which had been active since the last decade of the previous millenium! On the one side, that was Streetcore act Woptime, formed in 1999, leaving us a total of two studio albums (the last being 2004’s Mi Vida Loca, recorded/ produced by Daniele Giordana, and released through Brutus Records), an 18-track live one, and several contributions to compilation albums. Their sound was described as “a unique brand of Oldschool Italian Hardcore with a massive dose of Newschool NYHC blended with asskickin’ Oi!-influenced StreetRock”. Their frontman Saverio was one of the first professional skaters in Italy, and his involvement to the Underground scene goes back to the early ‘80s. During their lifetime, Woptime shared stages with the biggest bands in hardcore, including Agnostic Front, Barcode, Born From Pain, Breather Resist, Cripple Bastards, Cursed, Death Before Dishonor, Die Cast, Madball, Raw Power, Sick Of It All, Skarhead, and 25 Ta Life to name but a few…but also with such Pop acts as Africa Unite, Motel Connection, Subsonica, proving that their sound was melodic enough to transcend the barriers of usually separated musical genres! On the other side, you have Sickhead, a band active since 1996, which gave us a total of three full-length studio albums, the latter two through the Loudblast label, and a couple of otherwise unreleased tracks on compilation albums. As their 2003 release Abuse somehow ended up on my desc for review, I can tell you their style was a melodic Hardcore with wacky Thrash Metal elements (influences taken away from the last days Max Cavalera-era Sepultura) which earned it an inclusion in my 2004 year-lists…if I’m not mistaken! By the time of their swan song release Far From My Eyes: Sweet landscapes Of Apocalypsethe band had become an “absolute value” item in the Italian music scene. Singer/ guitarist Catapain (now called L.C. Pain) and guitarist Luca M (now called Lou) were capable of enticing the listener with their sound which was brutal and melodic at the same time. Due to the many frivolities, you needed some time to actually gét what the band was about, but once you got on their level, a guaranteed quality time was your deal! With their combined experiences, it shouldn’t be surprising that soon after Saverio, Lou, and Pain got together with bassist/ backing singer Dany and drummer Pelle, the band was able to write songs in record time and get out to play a darn lot of shows! In no time the guys had established themselves as one of the most active Hardcore band from the Torino region. Also, they were contacted very early on by the people at Countdown, who issued the band’s Down With The Madness mini-albumas soon as July 2007, by which time the guys had already shared stages with such resounding names in the music business as Sick Of It All, Madball, 25 TA Life, Cripple Bastards, Sick Of It All, Skarhead, Agnostic Front (untill now that’s a lot of names I wrote down above), Sepultura, and Dillinger Escape Plan (finaly some new ones)! Since then, other business biggies can be added to that list, like Maroon, Shattered Realm, and The Business (no pun) among many others! One year later to the day, the mini-album was available through iTunes…and around that time the guys must also have been busy reecording their new album: album closer “Throw You Down” was made available for download as early as July 28 (2008), the album originally projected to be released in October 2008. I’m not sure what happened after, but promo copies of the album were apparently already sent out to Europe’s bigger printed magazines (proof of which the several reviews posted as early as late October in a blog at the band’s MySpace page). Possibly, the release in Italy indeed happened on time, but the info sheet we got along with the promo copy of the album mentions a December 2008 release (certainly, they meant street date outside of the immediate influence sphere of Italy), and eventually I found out it was really released January 9! Anyways, the music…very much a continuation of Sickhead’s, but with less frivolities (still with some great solo work, but more geared towards the Metallic remeniscences of the likes of One Minute Silence, Madball, Merauder, Sheer Terror, Killing Time…get the picture?…and with a completely different kind of singer! Yeah man, Saverio is the kind off ruff-throat singer that’ll cause any slightly empathic person to get shivers up and down his/ her spine just by listening to him sing! Combined, you get a hybridisation of aggression and melody, which never stand in each other’s way but quite in contrast combine to something quite compellingly catchy! Just check out the songs (2 off the mini-album, 2 off the full-length) posted at myspace.com/concreteblockhc, and dare say you don’t like what you hear (if indeed you do not, I wonder what the frell you’ve been reading this article for anyhow)! Shit man, this is the stuff that grabs you with sharpened leng nails by the throat from the get-go, smashes your head against the Marshall boxes, and crashes you on the floor with a violence that is simply unthinkable…and has you begging for a repeat treatment!!! Yeah, definitively and most deservedly year-list material. Only, since it wàs a 2008 release originally, I shan’t be able to put it in this year’s lists, right? Still…a motherf***ing gréat album! 98/100 Tony. |