Traktoroth: Post Nuclear Boogie EP

Man sometimes Eastern Europe just gets it right, right in the kisser.  Sorry, that’s all we had on hand by way of clever introductions.  Many have argued that said part of the world is roughly ten years behind everyone else culturally, but it’s pretty rude.  There’s no lack of style over there, easily proven via pagan metal like Arkona, or thrash like Traktoroth.  We actually encountered these tractor-riding thrash/punk heads in a compilation, and, pleased with our review, they repeatedly abused our inbox until we decided to check this out, their 2013 EP.  Eastern Europe has this thing with tractors, it goes back to the Stalinist era.  And there’s no better symbol for blackened thrash/punk.  Everyone thinks it’s so manly and oi to drive a trunk, maybe a car with post-apocalyptic spikes on the rims, or a motorcycle, but what about a tractor?  That black-smoke-spewing, rumbling, diesel-driven, semi-tank beast that has one purpose; devastating the Earth so we may command her to produce crops.  Isn’t that at least a little bit manly?  Come on, you know it is.  Thus, we have no problem with a thrash band naming themselves after said farm implement.  Traktoroth informed us they’re sadly on hiatus, and the tracks of this particular EP were actually intended as a full-length.  Dude even referred to them as “filler,” and though they’re a bit, shall we say safe, filler they are not.  Blackened Croatian thrash/punk?  Any day, yes please.  More please.

  

Post Nuclear Boogie retains some of the comedy factor these guys had going on earlier in their career.  But, at the same time, it’s the same old skeletons in spike jackets you expect out of this kind of raw thrash.  Raw may not even be the term for it.  There’s an almost ‘demo’ feel that goes from raw to just-cut-off-the-steer (with a tractor blade).  The production is lower-end, but not so raw it sounds like it was put together on a melted cassette.  It’s just slightly above that, meaning the riffs are clear, and neither the vocals nor the drums overpower anything, as can sometimes happen on poorer recordings of the demo quality.  But it’s raw, no doubt, probably too raw if something overly-produced is more your thing, and if that’s the case we probably don’t want you around here much anyway because real thrash likes it raw.  All the lyrics are in Croatian, so don’t bother trying to figure them out unless you know a little of some Slavic language, just take it in qua blackened thrash, and enjoy.

 

Traktoroth, as we saw before, have a great sense of simplicity.  They pull out some fairly typical riff patterns, covered with a sludgy, metallic distortion and chugging drums.  The vocals are delivered with thrash roars or throat spatter closer to black metal.  So, lots of short ‘ughs’ and ‘yeeaaayaahs’ are what you can expect.  As such, this is what we meant by ‘safe’ above.  Post Nuclear Boogie plays it safe.  Not as safe as the kiddie pool, but it’s perfectly content treading water in the five-foot section, staying clear of the depths near the end.  One of the solos is an awesome overlay later on, delivered in atmospheric style instead of technicality, but in general you’ve got some hefty chunks of pretty classic blackened thrash with a bit of hardcore punk.  So you pretty much know what to expect when you see the art, it has no problem hiding that fact.  It would have been nice to see more of the uniqueness we encountered in the single track (check the link above) on that compilation, but still, Traktoroth can and does deliver.  It’s depressing they never really got to finish this and had to go with an EP, because if this is just the ‘filler’ the rest would have probably run its farm treads over the Earth and put us back into an agrarian apocalypse.

 

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Written by Stanley Stepanic

Traktoroth: Post Nuclear Boogie EP
Self-Released
4 / 5