Still Bleeding – Outsider EP (Various Labels)

Still Bleeding are relatively a new name on the Serbian scene, but the band members are familiar faces who played in various bands in the past, such as Strive For More, Through These Eyes, First Flame, Lockdown, Red Union…to name a few. Outsider EP is their debut 7” record and with their appearance on a brand new Hardcore Novi Sad Vol. 3. compilation their only recording to date. Still, with a skillful musicans like these, you can only expect some quality music. Outsider EP starts with a classic surf rock intro which instantly reminded me of the music played in the 50s. Band is catching up a true spirit of that era with catchy guitar riffs enriched with a bit of delay and reverb effects on a guitar and a skillful drumming in this tune is right up my alley considering rock’n’roll.  Next one is Back To The School, great mid tempo opening track with much more old school hardcore punk feeling to it. Palm muted hard core riffs mixed with rock’n’roll hooks goes great all together and the singalong parts on the choruses are very effective. Outsider is a third compositon and a slightly slower tune which was previously published as a teaser for this EP. This one have that classic hardcore punk moments with anthemic choruses which will, I am pretty sure, fit to the fans of this type of genre. Also, Outsider possess some quality guitar solo cleverly implemented at the right place of the composition, but short enough not to spoil the whole tune. Unity is up next, amazing tune which is personally my favorite one and perhaps the track off the Outsider EP with the most energy. Whole composition is enriched with a lot of kinda RKL moments, but with much more melodic impact which instantly reminded me of some punk rock bands I’ve been listening to since 90s. This one have a great surf rock moments at the middle of the track and with the rockabilly drumming like this, true listeners of this type of music surely can’t be dissapointed. It seems that choruses are a specialty of this band, because they’ve made another great one especially on this track. Next one is Stand Strong, another great slower tune with great riffs and cool lyrics which indicates a closure of a great material performed by the veterans of Novi Sad hardcore punk scene. This one also have great solo which is once again placed at the right spot of the track. Devil In Me is the last song off this material and another short smashing mid tempo tune cleverly left as a perfect finale of the Outsider EP. What decorates this band the most are their verbal and musical skills to express themselves by implementing various musical genres into hardcore punk music and that’s more than a good reason to possess this piece of plastic in a record collection. Outsider EP comes as 7” with a straight edge skateboarder holding the board at the sidewalk depictured at the front cover and with all necessary infos, lyrics and photos of the band members at the inlay of the cover art. First pressing of the 7” has been published as a co-prod between Stand Strong Records, Rebuild Collective and SKCNS, but this material is also available for listening and downloading at the Still Bleeding’s bandcamp page, so there’s no better occassion to support fine work of the band.