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New cassette from Raleigh hardcore punk band Vittna featuring 2 brand new songs from an upcoming 7" they hope to have out later in 2018. You can expect Vittna's same brand of dark, but ripping hardcore, taking influence from creepier 80s bands like Nog Watt or Die Kreuzen with a dash of US-meets-Swedish punk, but delivered with more intensity and at higher fidelity than their first tape. Also includes a few tracks from a live recording featuring a bonus cover tune. The tape features cover art by Red, vocalist from Scarecrow. Limited to 100 hand-numbered copies.
Our take: After a scorching demo last year, Raleigh’s Vittna follow things up with this five-song cassette. The first two tracks are from an upcoming 7”, while the other three are recorded live in the band’s practice space (including the Sacrilege cover they’ve been playing live for a while now). If you missed the first Vittna cassette (shame on you!), the band features the creative core of Raleigh favorites Blackball, but to my ears they amplify the more haunting and unique aspects of that band’s sound, making their strengths the central focus rather than just an added spice in a main meal of meat and potatoes. Specifically, those interesting aspects are the quirky / surprising rhythms and the dark and melodic guitar work. Not that Vittna aren’t a hardcore band—they are—but they’re a densely layered, ambitious hardcore band in the vein of Articles of Faith or Everything Falls Apart-era Hüsker Dü, albeit with more Discharge influence than either of those two bands displayed on the surface. If you’re looking for a more modern reference point, Sickoids’ great No Home LP is a great point of reference as the balance between explosive gestalt and meticulous and subtle composition and performance is similar here. Fortunately there’s enough music on this tape to keep it close to the player for the next couple of months, but it really has me salivating for the full 7”, which is the point I guess. Highly recommended.