INSURRECTION - WARTORN
- Format: Cassette
- Label: None
- Year: 2025
- Listen here: Bandcamp
Insurrection is a Romanian two-man band that just released their first demo straight out of their bedroom. They released it free of charge and asked for constructive criticism, so here I am providing some!
'Wartorn' consists of five d-beat tracks and they say Disclose, Life, Warcollapse and Besthöven are their main inspirations which is pretty evident from listening to the tracks. Well, and looking at the artwork. Everything screams classic d-beat/crust. But let's begin with tackling the elephant in the room straight away; the vocals. They're mixed too low. If you're not paying attention you might not even detect them at all and mistake this for an instrumental release, but they're there. It's this low sort of dirty growling which I've had problems with in the past. I've always preferred outright screaming to growling which I think stem from the fact that screaming (for me) feels more honest, growling gives off more of an image vibe, a metal sort of thing. But who am I if not someone who can evolve and start to appreciate things I haven't before?
The d-beat drumming is great. And it's the thing furthest up in the mix which makes me really happy, having them take so much room reminds me of Dissober's 'Sober Life... No Way!'. This also means it's the best way possible for me to start appreciating growling, because the d-beat is the main course and the growling is the subtle seasoning. It's like dipping my toes, easing it in. The riffs are heavily reminiscent of their inspiration which also means it's very good. I like listening to every track, as far as the instruments go there's nothing that bothers me or makes me feel "they should've..." or "if only they...". It's really cool! When they turn up the volume on the vocals, just a smidge, I'd say it's an easy recommendation for anyone into d-beat punk/crust.
For being a first recording, out of a bedroom no less, I must say I'm incredibly impressed. I love the sound and would really only change the volume levels on the vocals. A very promising start for Insurrection, they have my full attention going forward.