If, as Swedish group danmarck did, a band announces themselves to the wider world with a track inspired by The Damned's hi-octane 'Neat Neat Neat', then it's fairly safe to assume their own material isn't likely to pull any punches. On their latest EP, though, Richard Ahlgren and co. offer up music of a higher intensity than they perhaps have before. The most obvious examples of this are 'pants on pants off leaves on leaves off' and 'ice eyes'. The former takes punk rock and pumps it full of steroids so that the drums pummel and the vocals are throat-shredding. It's a ferocious effort for sure. 'Ice Eyes' is equally as powerful and perhaps even more noisy - especially the grinding feedback that starts the song and hovers around in the background throughout. Again the vocals border on being hardcore, but this is a melodic form of musical brutality.
'skull earth' is perhaps lighter and maybe an easier listen for those more into conventional punk, grunge or alt-rock. It still packs a punch though, and the backing is crammed with clanging guitars and strange noises that sound like some kind of flute being burned to death. You could call it a perfect mix of tune and noise. 'Manga' is similar in style, but this time the flute isn't tortured and is allowed to pipe up from time to time, becoming an unusual addition to this type of music. Vocally, the chanting is almost tribal in nature, but always aggressive with it. Essentially we're looking at a modern, bastardised form of garage-rock that wants to be in your face whether you like it or not. So it's pretty handy that it is so likeable then, because it's hard to avoid sounds this potent.
danmarck's website
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