Review: The Gluts ‘Bang!’
After the release of their 2021 fourth album Ungrateful Heart, Milano’s undoubtedly extrovert and earthy punk rock four-piece The Gluts are back after three years of ‘solitary’ hibernation with a Bang!, a title ready to take you inside their fighting musical boxing ring. The Campana brothers, together with Claudia Cesana (bassist) and Dario Bruno Bassi (drummer), from their beginning up to now went through a butterfly effect that took them as one of the best psych punk rock band coming out from the Northern Italy underground music scene.
From their dark post-punk beginning ala Jesus And Mary Chain of Tears Of Ink and a debut album that smells like cemetery rituals confronting the spirits of Southern Death Cult, it was necessary for the brothers to find a sound that could distinguish them in the best possible way. As easily said and done, their new way of musical expressivity took them away from the darkness to more outrageous and strong trashy rhythms expanding their horizon with more jagged and devilishly good fuzzy guitar distortions.
Ungrateful Heart is their ‘black widow’ for its aggressiveness and hallucinating vocal cry that pushes dread and anxiety which seems to stand inside from the pain and desire to escape. They’ve entered into a kind of Hüsker Dü vs Big Black transgressiveness. During the three long years of hiatus from the recording studio, which sees them still busy touring, and at the same time, putting down the base for their next work, they never lost that feeling of giving to their compelling sound the desired direction.
Bang! is a breathtaking record that won’t give you peace from start to finish…
Bang! comes as a real tremendous impact inside the eardrums of your delicate ears. From the start to the end, every track is a breathless race that explores their ragged frenzied garage post-punk as well as experimenting with minimal electronics that somehow takes them back from where they started, and at the same time catching part of their natural progression as a band.
Here we have ten tracks that spit fire and sweat in all sides. It’s a never stop revelry of captivating trashy shoegaze guitar riffs ready to split your guts with every touch provided by their venomous thorns and Nicolò J. Campana‘s heart-rending, aching cries. Each song has its own story to tell, even touching a bluesy tone with the likes of Vampire, A Walk At Midnight.
But throughout the record, there’s pure poignant insanity that they have been carrying around for some time. Is there a moment of calm or perhaps relief? No, there is no rest for the wicked, apart from the almost atmospheric Marble Cats, but only for a while. Bang! is a breathtaking record that won’t give you peace from start to finish, and as he screams madly on Isabella. Hey, Oh let’s go!!
Label: Fuzz Club Records
Band Links: Facebook | Bandcamp | Spotify | Instagram
Scribed by: Domenico ‘Mimmo’ Caccamo
