Śmierć (‘Death’, ‘End of life’) is a long-running Swedish band paying to Polish hardcore with Polish titles and such. Opór (‘Resistance’) is their third effort and they were kind enough to reach out to the site directly and send me a copy of the LP, with its gorgeous artwork and all. The album is co-released by Poland’s legendary and first punk label Nikt Nic Nie Wie, and San Francisco’s influential scene label Prank Records.
The style of hardcore Śmierć plays is of course a political/social style of hardcore rooted in a more melodic form of D-beat , a la country mates Spolegelse, Problems or Ninka’s chosen influence, Polish acts like Schizma, Inkwizycja, Traume, Incident, and such, which admittedly I’m not too versed in.
Frontwoman Ninka delivers her impassioned wails, croons, sneers and shouts in English, Polish, and Swedish with the expected array of anti-government, anti-establishment, and the riffs, of course, delivering rousing power cords and canters galore (“Uffe”, “Kto”, “Krewe”, “Kuren”), with some moodiness (“Prawda”, “Das Umheimliche”, “The Song”- with a cool little largely all-female hymnal to close to the album) and lots of song intro scattered among all of them. All with a nice DIY, garage band fuzz, but still nice and clear.
Certainly not my usual listening cup of tea, but there is a real authenticity and passion here that comes through on every note and every lyric (whichever language it is in ) and I like the overall vibe the band is delivering.
