siLLy puPPy
A modern band with an old school fetishism, ENTRAPPED hails from České Budějovice in the Czech Republic and is one of those newer bands that is fascinated by the sounds of yore so much so that it has taken upon itself to fuse a couple two disparate old school styles of extreme metal into its power packed tirade of ten tracks that will banter you for about 32 minutes.
A four piece featuring Lukáš (drums), Mirža (guitar), Dušek (guitar and Růžena (vocals), ENTRAPPED delivers a dynamic deathened crust punk sound in the vein of other 21st century acts that have ventured into the same territory which includes Black Breath, Stormcrow, AHNA and Mammoth Grinder. Although virtually unknown outside of its native land, ENTRAPPED is finding a loyal cult following in its few years together.
The album starts off with a short instrumental that builds the momentum for the speedy tempo based crust punk infused noisefest that follows. Blurring the distinctions between the more technically infused world of death metal with the more streamlined compositional simplicity of crust punk, ENTRAPPED’s debut delivers a powerful display of extreme decibelage turned up to the max with kick ass murky guitar tones and declarative shouts from underneath the delirious din. Although no bassist is credited, there are clear moments when the bass guitar is present so i would imagine one of the guitarists is really a bassist.
While a deathened crust punk ethos is the name of the game here, ENTRAPPED also fortifies some of its snappy most short deliveries of punk infused death metal other elements such as moments of dirging doom metal on the title track. The band is extremely energetic and there are no moments of slow down as this is pretty much a full throttle attack from beginning to end which is exactly the way a hardcore punk-infused band should act. All the tracks are infused with a vim and vigor that displays a youthful passion that unleashes all the rage and pent up angst that many of us build up.
The musicianship on this is off the chart. While crust punk is usually a less demanding style of metal, the death metal elements are fully implemented with crazy fast guitar riffing and bombastic percussion that alternates from a more standard crusty affair to full-on technical rolls. In other words it’s a near perfect hybridization of the two styles where it’s somewhat hard to tell where one ends and the other begins. A short and energizing set of tracks here that are quite satisfying! The production is also decent as it finds that perfect balance between the raw and ugly nature of the music and the ability to hear all the instruments do their own thing. The final burst of drumming action that ends the album is icing on the cake. Nice!