What does German resistance fighter Karl Jungbluth have in common with hardcore? Really, nothing (aside from resisting Nazis being totally hardcore). But German hardcore outfit Jungbluth have named themselves after this man who was executed by the Nazis in 1945. No, this isn’t a history lesson; it’s a review on Jungbluth’s album Part Ache. This nine track album blends hardcore, screamo, and post-rock into a nice little package.
“Crevasse” is an airy opener. Elements of post-rock fluidity come racing in, creating this atmosphere that is different from the rest of the album. Gigantic drumming and wafty riffing set the tone for something completely different. “Crevasse” has it’s own feel to it; a mark of a band experimenting with their sound. The next track, “Wakefield”, hits; a blitzkrieg of hardcore. Jungbluth moves at lightning speed, pummelling away with this blackened hardcore feel. At the middle of the track there’s a breakdown — this raw emotional intensity comes out. Vocally, there is a lot of passion being laid out. Distorted vocals scream out lyrics in such an unfiltered way; these kind of vocals exist throughout the album.
“Au Revoir Tristesse” starts off with a sludgy bass, full of fuzz as the drums just create fills. Simple beats with thrown in fills give way to the guitars that create some post-rock ambiance. The track begins to build up steam; it gets louder and heavier. It’s a pure instrumental track, there to create this atmosphere. Amidst these shellshocks of hardcore bliss, the post-rock feel exists as a break in the action, and one that doesn’t feel out of place. Still, some hardcore elements make their way through and rip at the seams; the heaviness of the bass and the raw intensity of the drums are prime examples of a hardcore punk act forming their own style of post-rock.
What happens when you mix all these aforementioned genres together into one track? “Zwang Abwärts” is an amalgam of all these ideas. A blend of old school hardcore mixed with the raw emotional intensity of screamo and the atmospheric post-metal sentiments of acts like Pelican, the recipe here calls for an aural attack. Heavy, crunching guitars with punishing drumming, meeting the same type of distorted vocals. As the track moves into a more instrumental towards the middle, there’s a very blackgaze feel to it. These are some of best creations of Jungbluth; the ability to play powerful, tough hardcore, and then be able to switch into this combination of shoegaze-y post-rock is like trains switching tracks, speeding up then slowing down.
The album ends with “Crevasse II”, and, as expected, is another airy song. An acoustic guitar strums along the same pattern. A xylophone is being played. Guitars resonate and build this track up. The drums crash, seemingly off in the distance. This is more Explosions in the Sky type, but one that works so well. It is a cleansing. It’s all the hopeful ideals, coming together, and being wrapped up in one little package. It’s a beautiful track, so strikingly different from the other hardcore anthems that Jungbluth is privy to, but it’s a track that makes sense as part of a grander picture.
This album grows on the listener. Employing such differing genres into one mix seems like disaster, but Jungbluth does it so well that sometimes you forget you’re listening to a hardcore punk album. Emotional intensity meeting the toughness of old school hardcore, and the wafty soundscapes of post-rock, it seems as though Jungbluth is carving out their own niche in a scene that has too many genres to even list. Part Ache is an exploration into unknown territory, and one pulled off well. Someone build a time machine and ask Karl Jungbluth what he thinks.
The album is available in the U.S. from Halo of Flies and in Europe from Bisaufsmesser.
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