STORM{O}- ‘Ere’
These are anxious times. These are angry times. Sometimes just getting out of bed can feel like a fight. One way to soundtrack such struggle is razorwire punk rock and firebreathing hardcore. And while the spellcheck-tripping STORM{O} might hail from Northern Italy and scream their guts out in their native tongue, the terror, tension and trauma audible on ‘Ere’ is grimly universal. The four-piece unleash 13 songs in under 30 minutes here but while ‘Lama’ is a lashing wild man of a song, ‘Practicamente intero’ fits squirrelly riffs, metallic static, bottom-end sludge and top-tier punk into its small space, and ‘Metafora del distacco’ gives some vital breathing room for Luca Rocco’s insistent, desperate vocals. ‘Ere’ leaves a mark then. Not because of any memorable melody, almost no light gets in here, but because its claustrophobic darkness, crashing waves of noise, and powerful crescendos feel so painfully necessary. Times like these, huh?
