A short one…
Location: U.S.A. (New York City)
Type: tape (fully colored j-card, with download card) / black vinyl (poly-lined inner-bag, with download-card) / digital
Duration: 20:33 minutes
Genre: Anarcho-Hardcore / Quixotic Punk
Introduction: After many years, this socio-critical act finally releases its official debut, i.e. a self-called EP, available on cassette and vinyl format. It strengthens this band’s political criticism – an angry reflection of current politics, a manifest against exorbitant capitalism, cultural discrimination, political greed, brainless racism, societal intolerance, dishonest injustice, and sociological narrow-mindedness – through eleven short (one to three minutes) anti-poems.
Content: despite their self-description as ‘Hardcore / Punk’ outfit, there is much more going on. Okay, Junta do perform Hardcore and Punk for sure, yet it’s much more involved by elements from Crust (Amebix might come to mind) and Doom, all from their nastiest approach and with a f*cked-up attitude. It isn’t even that crazy to add Thrash Metal as part of their influential description, or to refer to some proto-edition of Hellhammer, Venom and the likes. And what about the use of several samples, which aren’t that common either?
Anyway, to put this stuff into one or another specific genre, well, that’s not that important. Fact is that these pretty faces bring a forcefully combative and really dark-edged fusion of Old School inspired heaviness. It’s a mostly energetic collection of short, sharp and right-in-your-face anthems to criticize man’s stupidity. Through archaic and confronting, uncomplex yet infectiously effective Metal / Punk hymns, Junta spawns their message onto the grey masses. It’s strongly based on a harsh instrumentation and equally raw vocals, with quite some variety indeed, in speed and execution. Some parts are slow and sluggish, even sludgy, once in a while with some sort of psycho-grinding mood, while other passages accelerate towards an intensity of unstoppable force. Fine are the few eclectic guitar shout-outs (listen to Venga Y Vea for instance, and you’ll understand). Also the few samples (mentioned before) and spoken passages give a certain typifying character to this mini-album. And despite its short duration (twenty minutes), there really is a lot to experience. Each single piss, sorry, piece, is like a delicate ingredient, necessary to create a tasty dish. And it work, it tastes well, and it makes me craving for more.
Conclusion: when I saw ‘Punk / Hardcore’ on the biography, I was not that enthusiastic immediately. I do not dislike that current at all, but it takes a lot to impress me. Yet then, when listening to this EP for a couple of times, the inherent grandeur of this band and their untitled effort brings what I need: Crust / Punk with an old-styled Metal vibe, a dense atmosphere, and an arrogant yet well-deserved middle-finger to the sickness of society.
https://sentientruin.bandcamp.com/album/junta