Swecore – Rötter LP (People Of Punk Rock Records)

This release recently arrived at our headquarters. I have to admit I awaited this vinyl record with anticipation since I checked the tracklist. It includes nearly all the Swedish skatepunk, melodic hardcore, and hardcore bands I grew up listening to. Therefore, I was so stoked when it arrived. Swecore is a project of Teo, an ambitious Spanish drummer/guitar player who also grew up listening to renowned Swedish groups such as Satanic Surfers, No Fun At All, Adhesive, Pridebowl, Refused, Raised Fist, and many others. He decided to record the compilation album made of tunes from previously mentioned bands. However, this is just the tip of the iceberg because he involved musicians from other bands to sing these songs. I cannot explain how big the skatepunk treat this album is, so you’ll have to discover it for yourself once you finish reading this review.

Rötter includes eight cover tracks, previously released by renowned groups such as Millencolin, No Fun At All, Pridebowl, Adhesive, Venerea, Satanic Surfers, Randy, Refused, 59 Times The Pain, and Raised Fist. The chances of being involved in a punk rock scene and not knowing for these bands is equal to living under the rock for your entire life. As I previously said, Teo invited some guest musicians to help out with landing vocals for these cover songs, so you’ll have a chance to enjoy guest appearances by Pat of The Decline (singing Mr. Clean by Millencolin), Pekka of One Hidden Frame (singing Master Celebrator by No Fun At All), Teo Swecore (singing Nine Digit by Pridebowl), Heath of Hack The Mainframe (singing On A Pedestal by Adhesive), Mikael of Venerea (singing Hero Of Our Time by Satanic Surfers), Oscar of Melting Fast (singing Whom To Blame by Randy), Sebas of Fast Food Society (singing Rather Be Dead by Refused), Bart of Straightline (singing More Out Of Today by 59 Times The Pain), Dimitris of Day Oof (singing Torn Apart by Raised Fast), and Josh of The Stifled (singing Beanstalk by Venerea). This is the main reason why I stated this is an ambitious project since it probably took a lot of time to gather the musicians and land all the songs.

I have to say that every aspect of this project looks, appears, and sounds marvelous. Soundwise, Teo and the guest musicians did their best to meet the standards and satisfy the criteria that these tunes demand. Each composition sounds superb. Rötter comes as a giant slab comprised of flawlessly performed skatepunk tunes, and Teo did an incredible job compiling all these songs in one place. I guess he had some difficulties picking his favorite tunes since these bands have plenty of good albums and tracks, so compiling the album was probably a difficult task. It’s nearly mindblowing how all these compositions fit together nicely, and you’ll notice how Rötter continuously emits the right amounts of energy without losing any consistency. Also, the album looks eye-peeling and whoever designed this piece of fine artistry did an incredible job. Besides the cover artwork that entirely pays homage to Sweden and Swedish punk rock bands, you’ll get an inlay with the photos of the musicians who participated, alongside all the information about the making of this material. Teo included every piece of info you need to know about this album, so Rötter appears as a flawlessly executed project worth checking out. You can purchase the vinyl record directly from the Swecore website or from People Of Punk Rock Records. Don’t skip ib this one!