Artist: Gënømê
Title: Young, Beautiful & Free
Release: LP / Digital
Year: 2020
Label: Not Enough Records, Phobia Records, Ryvvolte Records, Up The Punx
Swedish crasher-crusties Gënømê have released their brutal The Sound of Loud Ringing in the Ear tape debut in the beginning of 2019 that have stoked the anticipation surrounding their long-awaited Young, Beautiful & Free LP released in September 2020.
You’d forgive me for not reviewing this record earlier, but I have been thinking of them and their impact on me while listening to this stampeding beast around a hundred times since then. And now I hold their vinyl in my hands!
The band is made up of well-seasoned punks hailing from Malmö in the south of Sweden, but they unequivocally sound like they should be from Japan. The whole record is an absolute rager of crasher crust in the veins of LIFE, or Defector’s Punk System Destroy, but they totally hold it down and make it their own. It’s loud, epic, and noisy—and absolutely ferocious (in case I didn’t mention that)—with singer Aanna’s vocals scorching everything to ashes. The guitars of Gënømê’s mastermind Andreas Nilsson, who has also recorded the album in his studio, are as ear-splitting & thunderous as hell, throwing in textures of metallic git and a hefty dose of classic Scandinavian raw punk mangel into the mix. With a new bass-player joining the band, Young, Beautiful & Free hits significantly harder than Gënømê’s debut. The obscenely wild drumming on this record is also in a league on its own, and this time Gënømê have really come across with a true brutality in their delivery.
Young, Beautiful & Free is quite possibly the best crasher crust album outside of genre’s homeland of Japan right now. The artwork and packaging are also gorgeous, heavily inspired by the classic Japacore releases. More than just a bunch of loud screaming & screeching noise at full throttle, this is the kind of record that makes even a genre like deafening crust exciting again. By all means, pick this fückêr up!
