The Swedish quartet take d-beat to adventurous new places on album three!
Ah, it begins: the first in (probably) a series of Great Records I Missed Out On In 2024. ‘Opór’ is the third album from Swedish crew Śmierć; it was actually released in mid-December, but it’s too good for me not to review for Punktuation.
The band originally formed in 2017, with the aim of – in the band’s own words – “straight forward, melodic d-beat orientated punk”. They do a damn good job of it, but to label ‘Opór’ as just a d-beat album would be selling it woefully short. And with only nine tracks in 38 minutes, ‘short’ is not the first word that comes to mind when describing this record (not by punk rock standards, anyway).
One word: atmospherics. From the moment ‘Uffe’ is introduced with slow, almost doom-like guitars, it’s clear that Śmierć have a talent for ‘setting the scene’ (so to speak) for each song. Probably the best example of this is ‘Das Unheimliche’, where vocalist Ninka sings over orchestral keyboards and what sounds like some kind of glockenspiel (!) before the guitars and drums crash in around the two-minute mark. A d-beat concept record? It’s not labelled as such, but it certainly feels that way at times, such is the variety and ambition on show here.
Make no mistake, though, Śmierć can still rage with the best of them. ‘Prawda’, is ushered in on some melancholic, nimble-fingered guitar work, but you can easily picture a pit going crazy once that relentless drumming kicks off. It’s sung in Polish, and like us, you’ll probably wish you had a better command of the language, if only to yell along to that anthemic chorus. Elsewhere, the breakneck-speed ‘Kuren’ sounds like it could annihilate anything in its path as it blasts by in just 90 seconds.
It all ends on a somewhat eerie finale, as ‘The Song’ fades to the band singing an acappella refrain for the last minute or so. Close your eyes, and you can almost see them leading a sweat-soaked crowd through it at the end of a show. Truly, Śmierć haven’t set any boundaries for themselves, and it’s this which makes ‘Opór’ so compelling. Simultaneously authentic and forward-thinking, this is a record which we didn’t realise we needed, but trust us when we say that you need it too.
‘Opór’ is out now on Nikt Nic Nie Wie/Prank Records – stream and buy from HERE
- Uffe
- Krew
- Listen
- Razem
- Prawda
- Das Unheimliche
- Kto
- Kuren
- The Song
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I spend my days teaching English to foreign students, and my evenings attending as many gigs as possible. Raised mainly on a diet of 90s third-wave punk, my tastes have grown to include just about anything from trad ska to thrash metal. The Ramones are my musical gods.
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