In-Sane

Trust These Hands... Are Worthless (2009)

AlphaKennyBuddy

Imagine a parallel universe where the Lawrence Arms decided to play modern hardcore. In addition to losing one of Chicago's finest drinking incentives, it would sure provide some interesting results. 

In-Sane is a Slovenian trio that has a number of similarities with Windy Cities finest. They both use two vocalists, alternating between a gruff angry shout and a melodic whine. Further more the main driving force of the band is the drummer, while the bass and guitar provide some generic, uninspired, solo free layers. 

I had the pleasure of seeing them live and they even had the whole drunk and shit talking approach down. 

Anyway on to the album. Things kick of with a 90 seconds long intro, which is something you don't hear very often on a hardcore album. This isn't the only time on the album where the band uses long interludes. The interludes themselves wouldn't sound out of place on a post rock album. 

When things finally kick of, it's obvious that the bend has no intention of slowing down or staying still for long. I won't bore you with a song by song analysis,  especially since most of the songs start to sound alike after the first half of the record. 

The first song that deserves special attention is "Red Carpet Pretenders". It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out the lyrical content just from the title. With a catchy hook and socially aware lyrics, the song showcases the band at its best. 

On the other hand "Mrtev Policej/Dead Cop" is the song with the most future potential. By far the shortest song, stripped down to the basics and with a chorus which consists of the single line " Only a dead cop is a good cop" sang over and over again in Slovenian. It's the best song on the album, but paradoxically the biggest problem since it's shows what the band is capable of, thus casting a shadow over the rest of the material. 

The album finds the band on a crossroad of sorts. On one hand they lack the tehnical ability and song writing potential to be the next Strung Out. They also over complicate their songs and record them far too long for a standard hardcore band. Either the songs need to get shorter and more to the point, or they have to find a solid lead guitarist.

All in all it's a solid album from a solid band. A great starting point for people interested in the Balkan punk scene, but I doubt it will make anybodies end of the year list.