Scene Report From Slovakia

Hi MEM readers! Here is some short "scene report" from Slovakia.

I always knew that emo/screamo music doesn´t belong to the favorite part of hardcore scene here, but just after I promised to Adam to send some music tips I recognised that we have just a few bands playing these kind of music. Actually there is no record from Slovakia from some "true" emo-hardcore/screamo band. I had to think very hard to remember as much bands as possible. Ok, so come on!

Nowadays I found one new band, I never heard about them before and also the people who are playing in are young and they aren´t classic hardcore kids, but all of them play in one ska/alternative band. Here is Via Anima from Banska Bystrica, Slovakia. Their music is intesive, powerful and bit naive as well and you can hear some influence of old french screamo bands from 90´ but also alternative riffs and parts witch makes their sound unique. They recorded their first album called 'Sistém Má Chybu' last year and you can download it for free on their bandcamp. They sell it on their shows as CD-R with diy booklet.

If There Is A Hope was the only band in Slovakia who played emo-hardcore music. The band played from 2002 to 2008, but their last gigs was just because of some invitations, in that time the band didn´t practise new songs. After almost 6 years of existence they had three small tours (Slovakia, Poland, Ukraine), but they never record their songs in good quality. Just two songs appeared on some selections. If anyone would be interested in, I can send all their music like some songs from studio, six songs demo from garage and maybe I have live records.

Now we have more bands playing sludge, post-hardcore or post-rock music. Möbius (sludge/downtempo) is one of the best bands now. Just guitar and drums from Zilina. The Ills (post-rock) very popular band now, this year they are playing on the biggest festival in Slovakia called Pohoda. The bass player runs also one small label called Exitab. Drifted Shadows (post-metal/sludge) great band from Bratislava, they are playing not very often, but they played on Assymmetry Fest in Poland and shared stage with bands like Rosetta and At The Sundown.

Ok, that´s all for now, I will try to continue. In Czech Republic are tones of great bands, so I will try to choose the best and write more.

Written by Shupo.

If you would like to write about bands from your town/country just send to me.