Review by: Oli Saunders
It’s pretty damn good getting sent decent music to review, especially when it’s something you wouldn’t normally check out. Verstand Schept Lijden is a new screamo label run by a guy from Laatste Halt and this is his first release. I sometimes worry about the state of DIY emo and screamo in years to come, as labels fade away and people move on, but somehow the scene I love seems to self-perpetuate. I really wonder what it will be like in ten years: whether people will still playing this kind of thing, whether there is still originality to be found in amongst it all, and also whether I will even care anymore; I hope that I will but that perhaps I’ll be spending my Saturday with a loved one, rather than sitting around writing shitty reviews.
Wolf Shaped Clouds hail from Hungary and they impress me far more than most recent screamo bands have. Listening to this on my tape player gives it a really murky feel which I love. There’s nothing overly special going on – just a bunch of people playing a beautiful torrent of screamo destruction, half melodic and half noisy mess. They get the balance pretty spot on. Five bleak songs that merge together; it’s hard to see where the band will go from here but it’s solid as you like. Not sure about the two minute audio sample at the end of the tracks though, seems a bit unnecessary and out of place.
Angst play on the other side and decide to skip the melody and stick with the noisy mess. Cue me writing the word fastcore and namedropping ’12 Aullidos’ and ‘Sex Dungeon’ and not really knowing what I’m talking about. I rarely listen to this sort of thing but I imagine if you do you’ll be into this. To sum it up: HARSH. They don’t bother with an audio sample so you have to fast forward five minutes to get back to the WSC side. Overall, a good first release from this label and keep an eye out for more.
24th September 2011