Welcome to Berlin
Photo Cred 📸: @squeji
It's not too often you find a DIY genre spanning album that hits as hard as anything you'd find from some larger label with infinite production expenses and unlimited studio time. It's even more wondrous and impressive when it's a new band's fresh effort, as is the case with this week's album, Welcome to Berlin's “...And It's Blinding”.
“Kalopsia” era Crows-An-Ra mixed dance punk coated in the restrictive residue of The Faint’s Danse Macabre urgently trying to wrench itself free ala 2000s era DIY post hardcore, “Dance Song” delivers on its promise and then some as wailing guitars reel to the sky and wave to the earthy basslines amongst syncopated drums with the colorful dynamic shifts on the track being only a slight taste of what's to come.
A song like “(Forward) Inverter” gave me pause after it finished, drinking in the realization that I wouldn’t get to hear it for the first time ever again. It plods along slowly as it ramps and builds until ripping a distorted melancholy series of riffs that echo the heavy fall days of 90s Emo, cresting and lamenting, the vocals ache and agonize over an incredible crescendo of all three band members meeting in unison to the tracks stuttered yet cathartic conclusion.
I love a long closing tracks and "AM Radio 720" certainly did not disappoint. From it's gritty intro to the unnerving groove it weaves in its first few minutes, the Sebadoh-esque midsection plunges into an strenuous stream of vocal intensity punched by 3rd wave Emocore intensity, with an out of left field final 3 minutes that I dare not despoil for you.
I can't mince words here, I fucking love this album. It's the most fun, intense, and beautiful musical mess I've heard in some time. "...And It's Blinding" deftly handles it's sprint across multiple sonic soundscapes while maintaining all of its vulnerability throughout. Welcome to Berlin have given every other band in the scene this year something to pay attention to. To paraphrase the great Andre 3000 "NC got something to say". We greatly look forward to what their undoubtedly bright future holds.
Checkout the Bandcamp Here: Welcome to Berlin
Writer : @letsgetpivotal
Editor : @just_reidz
07/17/23
