milktheram – What?
Genre: Punk
The world, including the shiny Western segment of it, is in a mess. This will come as news to precisely nobody. But, what information to trust in these difficult times? Who to turn to for guidance? And, what exactly there is to be done about it is a bit of a mystery?
Does this sound like a job for punk music under its many guises? No, don’t expect your would-be Joe Strummers to come and solve it all. But, with a bit of shared trust, expect modern protest singers to at least speak some sense. Bigotry comes in many more forms and drifts nonchalantly. The democratic values once with which certain countries once prided themselves are eroding every day. And, still, there are people wishing to stand for unity and a wee bit of common sense.
milktheram’s What? is an anthem for civil defiance. It does not promise to provide any world-changing solutions, but merely to be one of the many faces serving the essential values of punk music. Yes, times are bad, and it’s all a bit funny. Joe Strummer and his cohorts did warn us it would come to this. But, when these troubles inevitably start getting blamed on immigrants, poor people and anyone that be used as an easy scapegoat, milktheram and well-meaning punks will be there to say “No, sir!“.
The Jupiter Effect – Give Them Rules
Genre: Doom Metal / Sludge, Math Rock, Alternative Rock
Similar artists: QOTSA, Alice in Chains, Audioslave, Nebula
Out of all the popular music genres, modern rock is the contrarian step-child of the family. While, generally speaking, pop stars are happy to celebrate the good times, and rap stars are happy to tell you how well they’ve been getting on despite the rough times, the rock stars are there to tell you that the world is there to tell you about the evil of the world.
We all have the feeling we’ve been duped! This is exacerbated by recent world events. Some of us are mildly dissatisfied and unable to understand what’s going on. Others are so obsessed with how authority has wronged them that they nearly go insane. One thing is for certain, people in the most advanced societies of our age are beginning to feel a bit cramped about their surroundings and the laws by which they have to abide.
The Jupiter Effect’s gloomy alt-metal Give Them Rules blends all of our anxieties about the forces that lead us. The dynamics of the tune are reminiscent of turn-of-the-century alt-rockers like Deftones or Audioslave, with the song’s dynamics and atmosphere carefully developed before the thrashing of the chorus. The world may not be out to get you, but it looks like governments are exactly to be trusted as dear friends. If this is what the truth appears to be even for modern Austrians, we may well be in trouble.