Liotta Seoul – WORSE

By RingMaster Review on January 26, 2023 • ( 0 )

A record released in the final days of last November but one we just could not let pass by, WORSE is the second album from German outfit LIOTTA SEOUL. It is a collection of tracks embracing a wealth of styles and flavours within its adventurous and truly individual roar; one of those encounters once heard never forgotten.

Koblenz hailing, LIOTTA SEOUL have a sound bred in alt rock and pop punk but as we said one drawing on a host of other genres as proven by the eclectically woven WORSE. It is noise punk raucous, grungy and cast with punk rock attitude yet equally it is pop infectious and electro bold with much more in its creative inclinations around lyrical contemplations intimately dark and worldly dystopian.

WORSE opens with Won’t You Love Me with guitars instantly spiralling around ears before, within a few breaths, the song erupts around the tones of vocalist/ guitarist/songwriter Sven Int-Veen and his melodic pleas. Rhythmically eager and sonically clamorous within its contagion loaded body, the track is a seriously enlivening start to the release but one already tapping into its emotional anxieties and shadows.

Hypernormal shares its edgy breath and presence next to escalate the impressive start to the album, its tenebrific beginnings bearing musty shadows from which searing flames of guitar and impassioned vocals leap. Further tension emerges in its atmospheric skies and post punk nurtured clouds, it all building with tension bearing rhythms into a crescendo of drama and emotional turmoil before Want You stepped forward to seduce ears with its crepuscular breath and shadow wrapped melodies. It is a gentle entrance but one with volatility in its presence, a tension soon erupting in a THREE DAYS GRACE meets OFFSPRING meets CELLDWELLER like uproar. As its predecessor, the track had us hooked as it burrowed deeper and increasingly drew emotive participation.

Laugh is next up, a fiery slice of alt rock with punk and grunge inclinations which almost taunts in its calms and trespasses with its eruptions. Featuring MightyMacFluff, the greedily devoured track proved a clamorous incitement and pleasure while Star similarly had us holler loud with its NIRVANA hued, TAKING BACK SUNDAY natured outcry. Prowling the senses, the track reeks of anxiety and inner turbulence but equally of the inherent virulence fuelling the band’s sound.

The electro punk tempting and lyrical belligerence of Disgusting swiftly gripped the imagination and grin within, its marching beats unstoppable from luring subservient movement from limbs; Int-Veen equally persuasive in the call on vocal chords as the track’s inventive enterprise inflamed ears.

The final pair of Medical Detectives and Beauty Salons ensured the album was brought to a compelling close. The first is a melodically clamorous affair with a thick haze to its body and volatile breath within its instinctively noisy body. Even so, the pop instinct of the band floods the track as too more metal inclined dynamics which only added to its rousing impact.

In contrast, its successor is a mellow if emotionally anxious seduction of ears. Inherently infectious but with its own burn of emotive turbulence and consternation and indeed an air of familiarity which only added to its inescapable hold, the track from a melodic simmer rose into a bonfire of sonic and inner discourse.

It is a striking end to an impressive and at times breath-taking encounter; it might be called WORSE but the album is LIOTTA SEOUL at a whole new level of fineness.

WORSE is out now via KROD RECORDS; available digitally and on Ltd pink vinyl @ https://krodrecords.bandcamp.com/album/worse