Distorzija uma

Distorzija Uma means Mind Distortion, pretty name, the most pretty
as it is in Croatian. It is my first contact with rock music from
Croatia. Info about the band in Metal Archives tells that they are
playing heavy metal. Nothing of a kind! Only few fragments of this
music are touched by heavy metal style, the rest is punk, crossover
orientated music. Distorzija Uma plays nice crossover painted with
a bit of punk influences, and sometimes their music turns into
more mainstream rock fields.
I must add that all their lyrics are written in Croatian. It sounds
great. Fans of using non-english lanuage in songs should prepare
themselves to buy this CD from the band. Croatian language is a
little bit similar to Czech language - the difference among them
is the Croatian is more melodic than Czech.
I start reviewing with a statement that I like this music in spite
it is not any metal. I am not any orthodox - metalhead, and I appreciate
punk rock, I also listen to alternative rock bands like Therapy?
The music Distorzija Uma plays reminds me Therapy? The first riff
could lead you into metal field, beacuse "Ljubavna" starts with a
quite good metal riffing - as well as Metallica taken from "Metallica"
album. In some places it reminds me Polish crossover band Illussion.
The vocal of Nikola Andresic the music starts to be more melodic.
His voice, but more punk oriented than metal is strong and natural.
The next tracks as I said earlier sounds more in Therapy? spirit and
they are similar to songs of crossover and melodic HC bands.
Let's pay the special attention to these super melodic hits like
"Jedina moja ljubavi" or "Beskrajno prazna". They are really good
punk hits and they have any similarity to that pseudo - punk bands like
Green Day or Sum41. They ain't any pseudo - pop - punk, but great sharp
tracks.
Some of the track like e.g. "Ptica slobodna" or "Zivotnija" reminds me
The Ramones style. In the end of that short review I would to put out
the metal elements from these songs. It could be the groovy first
song "Ljubavna", or first seconds of "Rob", where you can hear
the gloomy keyboards in it. In the last track "Uspomena" one could
find typical lead guitars' duo what is similar to heavy metal tunes.
But these simple riffings and the same drums rhythms reminds me rather
Sentenced nor Iron Maiden.
So, to look for the heavy metal in this music has no meaning rather.
It is no metal at all: other riffing, other vocal work and last but
not least other drumming are in this music. Their second album will
probably contain more metal sound, while there is quite good debut
album what could be highly reccomended to fans od using non - english
language in songs and to Therapy?, Sucidal Tendencies, The Ramones
and crossover fans.