Remorse — Inevitable Punishment (2018)

Remorse is one of the oldest active hardcore bands in Ukraine (if not the oldest). The date of birth of the team is the end of 2001. Despite this, among, actually, hardcore bands, at least in Kyiv, the band has never been particularly in favor. The fact is that their music has significantly more grind, crust, trashcore, and sometimes near-debut motifs than is customary (Remorse members are also involved in projects like Fecality (goregrind / grindcore), Keepleer 18 (sludge), Traven´ ( very cool experimental project, unfortunately, leaving behind only one track on the compilation of Electric Funeral Cafe).

As a result, a new generation of hardcore guys has already grown up, who didn't even hear about the special Chernihiv school of hardcore, or simply ignores it. Deep underground. But soon Extreme Noise Terror arrives in Ukraine and Remorse will play with them both in Kyiv and Kharkov, which means there is a chance that those who did not know about them will discover the band. But not hardcore guys again. If you climb through the archives, then there is a tendency that Remorse mostly played at the grindcore and crust events, where the audience is usually the same, and you cannot count on a special increase in the number. Remorse played on the warm-up with such eminent gangs as the Misery Index, Human Error and even Anal Cunt previously.

In May 2018, 7 years after the release of the last, at the moment, full-length album "Who Will Answer?/Comedians on Barricades", Remorse released 4 song demo. This is not very characteristic for the band, because usually the have between 15 — 33 tracks in their releases, after the second or third, begins to be afraid to listen further or lose interest. All the same texts from Remorse specific, as well as vocal style. Therefore, a 4-song demo works much better and reduces the entry threshold for new listeners.

And when I am ready to give a review of the demo — an album arrives! Without the announcement, without anything, the demo disappears from bandcamp and now we have 15 tracks united on the album Inevitable Punishment. It is not yet known whether the release will be released on physical media, the band is looking for a label that will deal with this, so, as they say, stay tuned.

Now about songs on the album.

It opens with the track "Аферизм", which was also on the demo and opens powerfully, I liked how the dance motive in combination with the text draws quite a vivid image of the person rubbing the hand and the crooked smiling person who just welded on someone:

Банковский
отчет продуманный,
а мы доверчиво
ведемся на процент.
"Аферизм" 
_____
Bank
report is thought out
and we trustingly
conducted by the percentage.
"Aferism"

But the next track, "Бой прошел" ("Fight is Over"), caused me mixed feelings, primarily because of the chorus. Marching rhythm, lyrics with a vivid description of the horrors of war, the story of the father who died at the front, who is buried by a little son. It was interesting how this is about current events in the east and what contributed to the writing of this track. Asking for comment, I received the answer that the song was written before 2014 and is anti-war out of time, and not specifically about what is happening now. But, as for me, the theme is quite sick and for many the images from this song are part of reality, therefore the track in the context of the current situation can be read ambiguously.

Samples are a good addition to the sound and atmosphere: in the song "Бабушка" ("Grandmother") they seem to be from some kind of criminal news, and in "Готов к действиям" ("Ready for Action"), like from the twentieth-century agitprop. On the album, besides other political tracks, "Сколько можно ныть?" ("How long can you whine?"), "Бесконечный цирк" ("Infinite Circus"), there are also tracks from the demo "Путь твой лжив" ("Your Way is Lie") and "Новый век" ("New Age"), which are more about honesty and its vagueness in the modern world. There is also a new version of Remorse song "Children of The Grave" from the 2005 album, which I don’t even know how to comment...

The downside, I think, is the lack of lyrics on bandcamp. Earlier there was a way to find texts in the social network banned in Ukraine (yes, it’s no secret that now you can use a VPN), but the lyrics from the new album were not posted anywhere. It's a little problematic to hear everything. Band promised to lay out lyrics in the future. Subjectively, I would add the date of writing to some tracks but it's up to the band.

It is worth noticing that the release came out stylistically even more hardcore, the songs do not differ much among themselves either in duration or in speed, with a few exceptions. At the same time, there is no doubt — this is Remorse, only they do play like this, and remain true to themselves and to what they have been doing for almost 18 years already.

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Remorse in social networks:

https://remorse-ua.bandcamp.com/