falangi
Artist: Scheletro
Album: Un feto schiacciato senza tre falangi
Label: Time to Kill
Release Date: 22/09/2022
Location: Rome, Italy
By: Alfred C Key IV
Listening to this record was a challenge for me because for one I do not speak Italian. It’s not like the music was unlistenable either with pounding drums, aggressive guitar riffs and a storyline that makes me wish that I knew the language of the writers. It was nice to hear the drama of a group of millitants plotting to overthrow the patriarchy but in the end failing due to a sex scandel. I headbanged throughout the entirety of the album.
With technical breaks in the introduction of Tre Ave Maria Per Ogni Suo Dito the music pulses along and drives the listener into a berserker frenzy. The shouting voice of their lead singer Lo Scheletro makes my throat scratch with the brute force of his delivery. The album musically is divided into two, on one hand it is a classic Italian punk album on the other it is a metal album with double kick drums and distorted bass. This album is ment for people with shaved heads who propound to be members of SHARP to pound their racist contemporaries into the curb. The album is not for fans of punk music on the radio and it makes me wonder if the label knows what kind of band that they’re promoting.
I listen to a lot of crust music and I have to say this is definitely a higher quality album then what I am use to. It’s not pop but the doubling of the vocals on certain tracks and the higher quality production makes me wonder if my head was in the sand the entire time and this is the direction the genre is going in. The political lyricism was lost on me because as I have stated before the language was lost on me. This is a good thing because it forces listeners who are predominantly English speaking to pay attention to the music which is rich in compositional elements that moves from one riff to the next.
The Black Sabbath inspired introduction of Ne Acceso Ne Spento threw me for a loop and the song continues in the same manner as it started with plucked chords and heavy distortion fronted with singing. It makes a nice change of pace from the rapid fire chug that perpetuates the album. As I listen I see the pit moving slowly to this particular song and I imagine my nineteen year old self taking a bong hit. This song in particular breaks most of the rules for crust, where the songs are intentionally short, this one clocks in a five minutes and ninteen seconds rapping up the album in a nice fuzz tone package.
The trouble with this album is that it’s so damn short that it leaves the listener wanting more out of the band. It creates a musical sculpture that leaves one to admire but like a bust it allows the imagination to fill in the rest. I had to listen to the album a couple of times in order to fully digest what was going on and it would have been helpful to non-Italian listeners like myself if the lyrics were posted allowing me to use google translate to decipher the message behind each song.
I forsee great things with this band and if they ever tour america I hope to see them live. The music that they have produced does not fall neatly into any category of underground music which allows the listener to place them were they choose. I would highly recommend this band to anyone who is searching for a backdrop to promote antifacist action.
Listen to and order the album:
