AstpaiJust to give some quick background for anyone reading this, this Austrian band were playing here in New Jersey back in late April/early May. They were on a short tour with One Win Choice who recommended I check them out. Of course I logged onto everyone’s guilty pleasure, Myspace, to listen to a couple tunes. I liked what I heard, so I wanted to catch them live. I decided to pass on the first NJ show in anticipation of the last show of the tour at One Win Choice’s Show Shed in Toms River. Besides being a shorter drive, anyone who has attended a Shed show, knows it can’t be topped. Anyway, I suppose I should’ve taken Murphy’s Law into account…the age-old rule where anything that can go wrong, will…not the band! The Sunday of the show I get a call that my mom was taken to the emergency room. Not to air my familial problems here, however, I want to show how disappointed I was to be missing this band play in Jersey before they headed back to Europe. Anyway, my mom is doing fine, but I spent the night in the ER instead of the Shed. Not that I would trade my mother’s well being for ANY show…I still felt a sense of regret for missing this one.
So this CD became the first that I ever requested for review. I’ve given this album nearly a month of repeated spins and I can honestly say, I was not disappointed! This is melodic hardcore punk with great vocal variation of strained and tuneful singing over quick tempo shifts. Cross Kid Dynamite with Hot Water Music then throw in the musical styling of From Ashes Rise and Give Up The Ghost, all while reading extensively from Noam Chomsky and Howard Zinn and you may have an idea as to what Astpai bring to the hardcore table. I actually cringe reading my own comparisons. Though it fits, I feel people will overlook this band with the overabundance of American bands that either do, or at least claim, to take influences/comparisons from the above listed bands. It’s times like these that I wish I had a more extensive knowledge of the European hardcore scene. Though I lived in Ireland for a while…their scene was dominated by the street-punk sub genre. And regretfully my two days in Vienna a few years back, did not take me to any hardcore punk shows. Therefore, I am not qualified enough to give you any less used and possibly more appropriate bands as comparisons.
I can actually only find one fault in this album. For a record that infuses so much melody, I find that most of these individual songs do not stick afterwards. Not even after many listens. That doesn’t mean this CD is not worth seeking out. In fact I feel you should go to any measures to get a copy. As an example, the new Crime In Stereo album (‘Is Dead’), is excellent, yet also does not stick with this particular listener after many spins. So the one negative for this record is not a major flaw. So go get this CD!
Rating: 4.9/5
Songs Worthy of Replay: “Hands Kept Clean”, “Obsession Kills” & “Born As Destined, Locked Up As Forced”
Synopsis: This is Astpai’s 2nd full-length album and it certainly makes me want to try and get a copy of their first record. If it’s half as good as this CD…it’s definitely worth the money in my book.