Jacklust – Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia CD

According to Wikipedia, Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia is one of the longest words in the dictionaries, and oddly enough, it’s a medical phrase for fear caused by the long words. Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia is also a brand new album by Jacklust, a furious punk rock quartet from Rotterdam, Netherlands. Right after a very short and eerie overture, the band demonstrates a hatful of extremely well-played compositions. It’s quite obvious that Jacklust are deeply rooted in punk rock, but the band is powered by some thrash metal, hard rock, and sleaze’n’roll elements implemented directly in the tone of the entire band. The sound of these experienced musicians is somewhere near their album title, it sounds simplistically at some moments, but after a closer examination, you’ll notice there’s a lot more than meets the eye. Jacklust dives deeply into the complexity of thrash metal music, the driving force of hard rock, the massiveness of hardcore punk, but still, their music possesses dominant rock’n’roll riffs that are empowered by shredding guitars. The guitars are hovering somewhere in between classic riffages, virtuous guitar scales, and compelling composite sequences that are backed by warm, but distorted sounding basslines. Basslines are gloriously following the monstrous guitar solos on the entire recording by filling the absence of the second guitar player. The drumming is impressive from the commencement to a conclusion, the drummer is a key ingredient that retains all the dynamics and arrangements in line. Vocals are transmitting a lot of power to this exciting quartet and singalongs are implemented in all the right places, but Jacklust are not settling there. They’ve also introduced fantastic female vocals on a couple of compositions that utterly enhance their arrangements even more. Jacklust are showing off even more surprises as the album passes by, and it resembles that the band evolves altogether at certain points of their wondrous record. Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia is a proper demonstration of experience, effort, talents, power, and it simply astounds how the entire band labors like a charm, no matter what genre they’re traversing at the present moment. This album is available on all streaming services, but you can also grab a compact disc directly from the band.