Self-released
Release date: 26. 10. 2022
Production: Tilen Sapač
Album length: 34.33 min
Rating: 9.0/10
Genre: Heavy Metal
Einschlog are a Slovenian heavy metal outfit based in Radenci. So, on “this (right) side” of the Mura river – Prlekija territory. The band’s roots go back to 2012. The group, which went by the name Franz Jösef I. in its early days, needed ten years to hone its craft and slowly pile up enough material to put together a studio debut.
The band talks to you old-school. They approach things in a basic, direct way, no overcomplicating, and let’s say no “pointless waffling” either. This is a trio building real sonic mass and destruction. Going by the style, a garage production would’ve done the job, but Einschlog are by no means content with that. And rightly so, because these are three lads who seriously know their way around their instruments, so it was more than worth polishing the debut’s tracks up considerably on the production side.
The band’s energy – when you look at the songs as a whole – hits you in a very elemental way. Abrasive. That’s why the album “Guts & Glory” will appeal to a wider circle of people too: those who swear by the old school of thrash metal, punk rock, the generation of bands from the N.W.O.B.H.M., and of course the rudimentary approach of Mötorhead. With his vocal approach, Denis Ilješ is a very important building block in the Einschlog story. The vocals sometimes sound like they’re being raised from some thousand-year-old sarcophagus, even stirring up possible associations with Cronos (Venom) as an inspiration. Phrasing-wise, too, Einschlog are incredibly effective at working the “less is more” axiom, which was also a virtue of their (potential) role models mentioned in the previous sentence.
The album’s drive is excellent! The trio works very organically throughout the record! The sound is alive, bristling and wide-eyed, and the sonic picture builds a three-dimensional, live-show feel. Despite the unbridled dose of sharpened bursts of primordial riff rumble and strutting, the band also develops a noticeable touch of musicality, focused primarily on stronger, singalong choruses. The trio’s chemistry has been carried over to the studio debut very effectively. That chemistry grabs the listener with an instant “magnetism” of high appeal, which is commanded at every step by the high-octane burn of the trio’s unbridled, raw and aggressive energy, hungry to prove itself.
Einschlog are their own breed of beast. The material on “Guts & Glory” knows nothing of planting flowers or prettying things up. There’s no hiding here. All that counts is the straight-up jab right between the eyes. The band answers to nobody. They just take what’s theirs. The atmosphere, captured and carried onto the album, works in a deadly, dark way that’s specific to the region the band’s music comes from! That’s why the band’s “bristling energy” of musical vision comes across as so unique. Kicks of a primordial dose of metal, Prlekija-style! “Guts & Glory” is therefore more than a bold and ambitious (first) step onto the metal genre scene, one that can already be said to be knocking very convincingly on the door of (potential) global recognition, and not just because of the bitingly convincing format of all the album’s tracks, but also thanks to the very convincing fit of English in the lyrics (including the use of meter in the verses). A work done with great, sincere heart!
Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Tracklist:
1. Power And Greed
2. Bitching, Loving, Hating
3. Why
4. Blackout
5. Dead Inside
6. Guts And Glory
7. Prozac Nation
8. Filthy
9. Find Your Way
10. Not Enough
Lineup:
Denis Ilješ – vocals, bass guitar
Marjan Kovačič – guitar
Timo Kosi – drums
