Burning Kross - No Escape
from Burning Kross II, 2024, Autoreverse Records (Europe, LP), Seats of Piss Records (Asia, cassette), Culture Desert (US, cassette) & Icepicks At Dawn (UK, cassette).
2 years after their vinyl debut, we're treated with a new release from one of Belgium's hardest bands.
Burning Kross are no rookies, the members have earned their chops in various bands in the past: Cheap Drugs, Permanent Debt, Black Haven and more.
While these new tracks blow the dust out of my speakers, I recognize the powerful aggressive voice of the singer Tom (otherwise a real gentle bloke) and the drums, bass and guitars are so clear, a fantastic production in all. Well now I read more about this release, it's obviously a Studio 195 recording effort.
The best place for punk bands in the low-lands (and beyond) to go record.
8 tracks, loud, sharp like knives and aggressively clocking in around the less than 2 minute barrier, leave me no choice to run through them several times. 1 track gives us some breathing space, a 4 minute slower song about oppression in Algeria during the French colonisation and its independence war. Speaking of Algeria, and as a matter of fact, French/Algerian bloody history are featured in the lyrics in most if not all tracks. Which makes this a conceptual album.
Like the track I've taken: the lyrics deal with Maurice Papon who was a French civil servant and Nazi collaborator who was convicted of crimes against humanity committed during WWII at a very (too) old age. The mind blowing fact that this man could continue crimes (in the name of France) much longer after the world war and got away with it for a long time struck when reading a bit more background info. Find some of it here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maurice_Papon
Sometimes great punk music has the power to get you to read more for your awareness.
Thank you Burning Kross!
And now, play this loud!
