Release date: 15. 11. 2025
Self-released
Production: Matic Mlakar
Genre: Alternative Rock
Rating: 8.0/10
Šesti are a rock band from Slovenska Bistrica. The members first started jamming together 16 years ago under the name Jeti bend (later renamed Šesti metek), but until this year they never managed to get a single album out the door.
Still, you can hear on the debut that these are musicians with some serious mileage! The band grew up on skate punk, and that bouncy cheerfulness carries over into most of the album’s tracks. “Zmeden” mostly comes at you with optimism and a sunny mood.
The crew wins you over with a likable knack for songwriting. The tunes have a confident tightness, and the band gets straight to the point without overcomplicating things. The sound is alive, and the production is punchy and full. It’s easygoing punk with a rock’n’roll drive, jangly guitars and the odd flirt with pop, and quite a few of the chorus melodies are so catchy that it wouldn’t bother us one bit if they landed in the prime time slots of the bigger Slovenian radio stations (the title track, Negativa). The party-ready, exciting Boginja v črnem has a nicely placed ska-punk spring in its step. Overall, “Zmeden” is a real party album. It calls for letting loose and switching off!
Mid-eight passages are cleverly tucked into the insides of the compositions. The solos are organic and unpretentious, and they keep the drive of each track potent. The lead guitar work deserves a special mention, as it’s top quality across the whole album. In places it even echoes a bluesy rock sentiment. In their arrangements, the band swears by the basic axiom of “less is more”. They take short, concise steps that say everything (the essence).
“Zmeden” has a very strong first half. The album rides in on mocking punk rock (Fantazije). That emphatic opening salvo is followed by the excellent Negativa, which belongs right on the radio, especially thanks to its superbly executed chorus melody. The track has every chance of becoming one of the band’s leading anthems (especially live). In the mystical Tema, Šesti flip the album’s atmosphere around with great skill! One of the best-crafted songs on the record! In terms of arrangement complexity, it’s full of excellent solutions! We can call Tema the artistic peak, or the zenith, of the album. After that the album speeds off again with ravenous punk rock rhetoric in the title track, which boasts another very cleverly built chorus. The middle stretch also keeps the adrenaline rush at an enviable level, with the Green Day-esque Disconnect, then (the aforementioned) Boginja v črnem and after it V umu, the latter standing out especially for its refined, filigree-sensitive guitar performance.
The album’s dynamic flow is interrupted in the middle by its first ballad. It’s sung in English and called Forgot About You. Decent, but no artistic earthquake. Then there are two more ballads at the tail end. Back to back. You could call it stepping outside the box. A very brave step, but one that does the album more harm than good, since it completely deadens the final stretch! Those two are Čas nazaj and Dlan. At these points the album (understandably) loses quite a bit of its rock’n’roll hooligan attractiveness, its momentum. The recipe in these (teary) moments has little room to maneuver and follows the classic songwriting formula. That’s why, at this point, the album gets properly boring thanks to its predictable development. But it’s more than obvious that these calmer moments mean a lot to the band, and that’s what really matters. After this total cool-down, Šesti do add a few more rock’n’roll pranks to the album’s tail, delivered by the closing punk rock shrapnel Resnično obrita. And just when you let yourself get a little sour about it, you find out that Dlan actually hit number one on the Radio Maribor chart. So it’s not all black and white.
The point of all the rambling above boils down to just two blunders on the record: a not-so-happy choice of track order and a surplus of ballads (two would have been plenty). Up or down, here it is! After all, it’s a debut. Bold, cleverly packaged. Very high quality. The band should be proud of it. Rightfully so. In terms of arrangement and production, the album comes across more than confidently. The ambitious first step of four grown-up guys and a girl has finally been captured on a first real, official studio document. Let’s hope the story doesn’t end here or get pushed into another 16-year waiting room! Given the very nice and convincing party-time rock’n’roll rush the band cultivates, and which we trust they won’t give up in the future either, Šesti can go ahead and turn into “Šesti strel” for the next album! The work shows there’s still some room for artistic growth here and there, but it was done on every front with plenty of dedication and perfectionism. Onward!
Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Track list:
1. Fantazije
2. Negativa
3. Tema
4. Zmeden
5. Forget about you
6. Disconnect
7. Boginja v črnem
8. V umu
9. Čas nazaj
10. Dlan
11. Resnično obrita
Line-up:
Krištof Blažič – vocals, guitar
Mitja Galun – guitar
Barbara Ferčec – piano
Klemen Javšovec – bass guitar
Timotej Auguštin – drums
