VALINA

The intro, hidden in a proper track and presented as one, consists of sharply hacked chords, which are put together the same way someone from a different country tries to use a foreign language – oddly. Towards the end, suddenly it all seems to fit, the drums set in and propose a dynamic rhythm and as soon as you are ready to start banging your head with the music, it stops. Mighty clever how that gives everything away, if you start to think about it, but if a band names its first record “into arsenal of codes” you are bound to expect something clever.

Don’t be afraid of this record to early. As the next songs make clear, there is no need for higher education or founded knowledge about semantics, linguistics and other academic ways to waste your life here. Structure defines energy, and most of the following riffs and flowing melodies are definitely aimed at being played live. In the best moments either the repeated riffs beat like a steammachine or the harmonies flow honeylike towards a bitter end.

Unknown as the fact may be, Austria has a long tradition of noiserock (and a long tradition of baptising anything that has ever come close to this country as Austrian and this way forming long traditions) and especially Upper Austria, so the existence of Valina has its own roots, which might be found in the subcultural movement of guitardriven revolution as well as in the surrounding industry and ante-WWII-housing projects. This could be a dreary life, if you don’t manage to fill it up with friendship, energy and, of course, guitar-bass-drums. Therefore Valina might present a big step towards a new future of Noiserock, away from the more trance-inducing and overdistorted riff-orgies from years past towards a new rhythmical approach and guitarsounds that can scrape the flesh of your ears as well as soothe your soul at the same time.

Don’t mistake this album for emo-core, since there is no hint at whining about girlfriends or complaining about the cruelty of the world as such. And please don’t put it down as another record made by musicians for other musicians to adore each other’s technical genuity, because I greatly doubt that any of the members of Valina has had a proper musical education. But please keep in mind, that Valina hasn’t forgotten what is most important for all music: to provide emotions and to rock. Both might be achieved through the complete outward explosion of any input a band can give. But it can also be achieved through a directed series of structured and well constructed implosions and as is plain to see, a series is better that just one big burst.