SYLVAN
We Are Lying to You
Through Song
(Popular)

CAINA
Mourner
(Profound Lore)

SODOM
The Final Sign of Evil
(SPV)

OCTOBER FILE
Holy Armour From the
Jaws of God
(Candlelight)

LYDIA LASKA
We're Nothing Compared
to Ourselves
(Duplicate)

CORPUS MORTALE
A New Species of Deviant 

(Neurotic)

THE PERFECT RAT
Endangered Languages

(Alone/The Stone Circle)

MORE REVIEWS

Sometimes I think that it is the cold countries in Europe where it’s at. I know the roots are here, but them Norwegians, Finns and Swedes have their ways with American rooted music and end up with their own flavors. Take this quartet from Oslo and Stavanger for instance, they managed to sound like only themselves but their music still breathes of early American punk. Just to give you an example of how properly these boys own their sound, they claim to be influenced by bands as divergent as Burzum, The Velvet Underground, Marilyn Manson, …Trail of Dead, Slayer, etc. Obviously, you can’t mix all these, show your influences and come up with a decent record. The sounds of these are just too varied and too opposites. We have to leave the cut and paste to other simpletons.

For clearer references, Lydia Laska sound like a very foul mouthed and obscene version of a Detroit band from the 70’s. On the other hand, they remind me of two key European bands. The first one needs no introduction; Turbonegro, whose influence is obvious because of the energy and the emphasis in melodies. The second is way more obscure; Lydia Laska’s guitar oriented rock and roll reminds of the more straight ahead sounds of Xysma, a great Finnish band that put out the excellent Lotto in 1996 and came and went without anyone noticing. They were too odd for the average metalhead and too weird for anyone else. A lot of the material, and especially the buzzsaw guitar sound, is very similar to the most straight ahead material of Xysma. We’re Nothing Compared to Ourselves is a four song EP that follows their debut EP White Trash Attack. It contains a cover of L7’s “Fuel My Fire” that’s every bit as good as the original. Better yet, they haven’t merely covered it but have made it their own.

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