Utopia Platafórmica

  Castle Rat “Into the Realm” (King Volume Records, 2024) Brooklyn, New York City, New York. In come a bunch of freaks in costumes, swords, and all things weird. Well, this ought to be funny and interesting. And indeed, it is. Checking in on the band’s Bandcamp we get this message: “Castle Rat is a Medieval Fantasy Doom Metal band led by the Rat Queen on a mission to expand and defend ‘The Realm’ from those who seek to destroy it. She is joined by The Count, The Plague Doctor, and The Druid. Together they face the relentless wrath of their arch nemesis: Death Herself — The Rat Reaperess”. Well, little old geeky me just frown his eyebrow, looked at it once again, and pressed PLAY. And into an Old School RPG we were dragged. Musically speaking, Castle Rat sounds Doomy and Old School Occult slow paced Rock n’ Roll, very embedded in Black Sabbathian mystic and atmosphere. Not a huge fan of Doom Metal, but I do love some classic sounding Doom Metal, the one that sounds… like Sabba...

  Short Days “Direction Nowhere” (Destructure Records, 2024) Music reviews do not always need to be long and heavy, difficult to understand and pseudo-intelligent; they can simply be immediate and straight to the point. A bit like the music I like, at times. French Hardcore Punk is one of those scenes I adore. The language is one of the things I love, but the way the French structure their music... it sounds so romantic, at times. Odd, right? We do not expect a romantic sounding band, and the word "romantic" might be misplaced here, but... understand some will. So yeah, let's go! Guess who is back? Well, you might not guess it, but I was not expecting for these lads to be back with new music, but here they are… Short Days is a band from Lille, France, and they play this Hardcore Punk the French way. The fuck is “the French Way”, you ask. Well, now that is a thing you do not teach; that is something you absorb after listening to large amounts of quality Hardcore Punk fro...