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Erkonauts, The: I Did Something Bad

The Erkonauts are a hard working Swiss Metal band with some Progressive undertones that was formed in 2014 and features former members of Sybreed, Djizoes and 7-tone. The Erkonauts musical style encompasses elements of Metal, Punk, Prog and straight ahead Rock, all delivered with an excellent sense of humor! Song titles like their infamously titled, "All The Girls Should Die" (they even sell T-shirts with this song title on them) or "Hamster's Ghosthouse" are just two little snippets of their tongue in cheek type of humor.

Along with the aforementioned humor, the guys that make up The Erkonauts can play! Band members; Ales Campanelli – Bass & Vocals, Fred Di Limoncelli - Lead guitars, Bakdosh Puiatti - Rhythm guitars and Vinch Cerutti – Drums, are up to the task of delivering the goods that backs up this sense of humor. The results are a powerful Metal band with an equally powerfully produced 9 track debut record that fans of Orange Goblin, Suicidal Tendencies, Mastodon and even Gojira will immediately find themselves engrossed with this Swiss powerhouse. A Swiss Krokus export, The Erkonauts are not!

When a CD starts off with a track called, "The Great Ass Poopery" you know that the band will either totally suck or totally rule and totally rule do The Erkonauts. From the frantic thumping bass line and equally mesmerizing and bombastic drums that are the beginning of this CD and the crazy titled "The Great Ass Poopery" (I had to work that title in there twice!), you know that these guys are very serious and all joking aside, these guys mean business. The 2nd song, "Tony 5", keeps the ball rolling with some in your face percussive bashing and this song will have the Gojira fans headbanging, for sure. And back to their great sense of humor is the CD closer, "9 Is Better Than 8". A silly, fun and speed filled way to close a record and all the while letting you know that, "9 songs are better than 8"! Classic!

The Erkonauts are great band that are not on a lot of Metal radars at the moment, but they should be. This is a great 9 song debut, filled with powerful performances filled with really good vocals and an excellent batch of Modern Metal songs. Don't let their sense of humor fool you; their music is as serious as a heart attack and heavy. With an excellently produced debut album, I Did Something Bad should get picked up by a larger record label at some point, as the band has already been to the US in 2014 to bring their music to the masses. This is a band and record that you should check out and get ahead of the curve, good stuff!


Track Listing
1. The Great Ass Poopery
2. Tony 5
3. All the Girls Should Die
4. Nola
5. Dominium Mundi
6. Hamster's Ghosthouse
7. Gog
8. Your Wife
9. 9 Is Better Than 8

Added: August 7th 2016
Reviewer: Butch Jones
Score:
Related Link: Band @ Bandcamp
Hits: 2741
Language: english

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Erkonauts, The: I Did Something Bad
Posted by Steven Reid, SoT Staff Writer on 2016-08-07 17:44:37
My Score:

With a band name like The Erkonauts, album title such as I Did Something Bad and songs titled "The Great Ass Poopery" and "Hamster's Ghosthouse", this lot had me worried. I like a laugh but I'd be liar if I tried to pretend that I always get on well with gimmicky 'joke music'. So why is it that those Nauts of Erk have me grinning? Well because the stupid names and the odd silly lyric is where the funnies stop and the mighty metal begins. Featuring ex-members of Sybreed and being produced by Samael's Drop, what The Erkonauts provide is an amazingly eclectic batch of cohesion.

Funk-metal springs to mind through the bass licks of Ales Campanelli and yet there's a push and shove of alt-metal, brutal blast of thrash and even some doom and industrial mixed with a grungy penchant to melodically drone the vocals. All sound like a mish-mash? Well right from the bass boom that introduces "The Great Ass Poopery" (which sounds like a low budget magician when you put it like that…) any preconceptions of wild zaniness, genre japing or blind idea herding are dispelled. "All The Girls Should Die" somehow introduces an unexpectedly melodic sing along, while the level of musicianship shown on the almost New Model Army meets Rammstein romp of "Nola" drops the jaw and refuses to pick it up again. Turn you attention to "Dominium Mundi", where the bass leads once more and rather ridiculously Electric Boys are brought to mind before the insistent riff from Fred Di Limoncelli and Bakdosh Puiatti gnaws in deep in an almost industrial style. Add in excellently sung, rasped and spoken vocals from Campanelli and the convincing concoction is complete.

Initially released as a 'DIY' indie release which sold out not once, but twice, Kaotoxin Records have stepped in to meet demand and hopefully increase it in the process. The Erkonauts certainly have the smarts to deserve it. Two cracking tracks have been added to this version of the release, "Machine" a bulging bounce of grating guitars and booming drums – the latter from Kevin Choiral who replaces Vinch Cerutti who played on the rest of the album – while "Culbutos" adds an unnerving sense of drama to proceedings.

The Erkonauts ain't a joke but where they are wide of the mark is on that album title. I Did Something Bad? I beg to differ.



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