Album Review: Low Value – “Recharge”

**The Album Reviews published on Dying Scene are written and submitted by regular users of the site. These users are not professional music critics nor are they paid for what they write.  If you disagree with an album’s rating, feel free to voice your opinion and give it your own rating in the comments. If you’d like to submit your own review do it here.

Slovenia’s Low Value have shown a lot of improvement in their sound and song writing with their new album “Recharge” on High Speed Flower Records; their second album to be exact. Thumbs up goes to Ku-ge for releasing this album as this adds yet another wicked band to his already international punk rock roster. Being from Slovenia brings a challenge to any band since locating musicians that play specifically punk rock is not as easy as you think. Especially when it comes to punk with technical and progressive influences, it makes it an effort to get all the members on the same page while keeping it stable throughout the years. With that being said, Jernej, Matej, Pinky, and Tomaz are one hell of a unit. They all agree on the band’s current direction and they have a broad range of influences that makes the song writing quite diverse. And while I’m at it, you need this in a band today since you cannot always write the same fucking book.

For this new album, the guys recruited the services of the great and upcoming engineer/producer, Matej Gobec, also from the band’s native land. You might have heard Matej’s work with such bands as Multiball and Leaf Fat, for example. With Matej Gobec’s vision and insight of the band, all of the parties involved took it to the extreme in order to get the sound that the band truly deserves. The guys’ previous effort, “The Language of Stolen Music”, was indeed a great piece of work but please keep in mind that the guy behind the knobs was not a follower of the punk/metal genre so it made it a bigger challenge. But what needed to be done got done and the great raw sounding album did well in the underground scene. The album was sold independently through the band in Slovenia (just like this new album) and in Japan through the legendary InYaFace/CR Japan Records – hail Bruce.

So, when a new album comes out a statement of some kind needs to be made, right? Kind of like Belvedere’s “Fast Forward…” with Steve Rawles shouting a big F-U when the album starts off. Well, Matej (bass/vocals) on the other hand gets the train started by yelling out in rage as if he was possessed. Caught your attention, yes, ok good. The album begins with “My Shame”, which is a typical Low Value song that continues from the band’s previous release – fast with great melodies. The recording quality obviously helps. The guitars in the song remind me of Never Been Famous’ work which is always a positive factor (the riffs can make or break a song).  “On the Road” provides a glimpse of what to expect with the band’s newer sound so enjoy and I especially love the drums’ uniqueness, especially the snare work at the 37. mark – it’s small but it adds a lot. As I said before, the guys have experimented much more with their sound as the years have passed since their first album. The pop-punk sound can be heard in many of the guys’ tunes such as “Coming Home”, which could have very well been the band’s first single or maybe a future one?! The chorus is definitely the highlight of this song and definitely one of the best parts of this album. In addition, Matej has really evolved as a song writer and his vocal development from the early years to the present can simply be said as “remarkable”. The melodies and notes that he can hit are jaw dropping; for instance check the part at the 3:09 mark where he sounds like Pavarotti holding a bass guitar. If this can’t be marked as one of the reasons to pay attention to this band then I don’t know what more could be done. It’s a special moment of the album so don’t miss it. “Call to Arms” continues on with a hardcore’ish shouts track that would be a good track to get the crowd involved. But don’t be fooled with this track being only a good live track, it’s long for a reason…the guitar work from Pinky and Jernej starting at the 5:40 mark is simply classic and rest assured, they are definitely taking you on a drive with style. AWS have nothing on these guys when it comes to that part. With “Want You More”, the pop element is much better introduced in a Low Value song. The lyrics and music seem just happier in general than previous tracks. The bridge at 2:22 is the high point in this one and even though short, it truly completes the song. I was waiting for a part like that one and the band did it better than I could of imagined. Did I say poppy before? Well the next track will definitely get you back head banging with some hardcore breaks and a Strung Out’ish blend of wow. Following that track (“Inside of a Monster”), Matej presents to us how much of a sweetheart he is by providing a slow tune that the boys and girls will be able to dance to on the floor. The song in question, “All Alone”, is new territory for the band since it can be up with the good ones of the alternative rock scene. I’m not talking about Canada’s worst Nickleback though. Low Value at least has melodies and musicianship that matter and it gets your attention. Next, you most likely heard “I’m Sorry” on the band’s MySpace page since it’s been released as a preview for the band’s album for a long time now. Like the opening track, it’s pure Low Value. “Burning Down” got me thinking that Low Value really does love this style and they have truly stayed to their roots. Although a short track, it’s a statement that says: “This is what we play and we aren’t fucking changing anytime soon”. The last track, “Threshold” encompasses the band’s work on the album and closes out the album with the kind of song writing that we have gotten from Low Value from the start of this release. Matej continues to shower us with a great chorus line and melodies that only he could pull off for this song.

“Recharge” is a new beginning for Low Value and I truly believe that the band have found their sound. It’s a masterpiece of sorts and must be in the collection of any punk rocker. Slovenia may be small in size but in terms of heart they have some quality bands that are putting the country on the punk map (yet again). Low Value is leading the way and their country mates In-Sane and Golliwog are helping deliver the message to the rest of Europe – Slovenian punk rock should never be ignored. Now to get the North American kids to catch on…