In an even further look behind the curtain—as many of you can see from my timely release schedule, I average a new blog posting about once a month. With review submission averaging five times that with each posting, you can see the bottlenecked situation the blog is in. This month's review emphasizes that sentiment to the utmost degree. The Gloucester based label, Let The Bastards Grind, contacted me last year in the hopes that I would be able to review some of their releases. Well, now that I have finally gotten around to the label's review, I find the record label is on indefinite hiatus. Apparently, Let The Bastards Grind called it quits in February and their distro has been absorbed by 783 Label. The embarrassment and shame in the fact that it took me so long to get to them that the label actually died is palpable. Regardless, this butter-mouth blogger respects the vague ordinances surrounding the principles of first come, first served and I will review a release by Let The Bastards Grind because it is in fact their turn.
Nevertheless, while perusing Let The Bastards Grind's more recent back catalog, I chose to write about Martø and their 2023 self-titled twelve-inch EP. Now, Martø is a band that I had not previously run across before. It seems like the French powerviolence four-piece formed in 2021 and I don't see any other major releases from the band. Whether the band is still active or not is beyond my scope.
The band's self-titled record was collaboratively released by some dozen labels, alongside Let The Bastards Grind, and pressed on five-hundred one sided twelve-inch vinyl records and a mere thirty ten-inch vinyl records with the moniker of the "Québec edition" (because of course.) The record is a twelve track, ten minute blend of hardcore and traditional powerviolence. Think bands like Los Crudos and Cut The Shit mixed with Spazz, The Afternoon Gentlemen or Lugubrious Children.
Martø's songs collectively have a signature style throughout the majority of the record. Songs are generally composed of hardcore punk riffs over mid-tempo cruising speed snare pops that—like a turntable being flicked from thirty-three and a third RPM's to seventy-eight RPM's—slingshots into powerviolence speed riffs and blast beats. The snare drum is a distinct microwave popcorn kind of snap that really cuts through the mix.
Vocally, things are your basic powerviolence archetype of dual vocals that trade-off between some throat shredding hardcore yells and the powerviolence cricked caveman vocals that are a staple of the genre. Martø, once again, lean into their hardcore influences with their use of punctuated gang vocals. Just like the tempo, the vocals toggle back-and-forth with the thick and thin, creating a familiar Spazz-esque texture. Occasionally we're given a third vocal addition with another strangled hardcore scream, most notably in the song, "La Gummolle." The tight vacillating of the vocals on "La Gummolle" inspires a whack-a-mole visual while the punk-as-fuck guitar riffs and blast beats make for a blistering track.
It's in the record's final quarter that Martø's modus operandi only slightly shifts. What little variations in the band's songwriting is found here with tracks like the aforementioned, "La Gummolle," as well as "L'oubli." "L'oubli" begins with a slower and swampier hardcore haunt that picks up with the inevitable blast beats and high speed riffs. However, the track is probably the most melodic of the EP. It also has the insertion of flagrant hair metal guitar flourishes and solos. Yet, "variations" is used loosely as, again, Martø are fairly uniformed and distinct.
Martø is very much your standard fare powerviolence. They sound very similar to many of their powerviolence peers, not to mention so many of the hardcore bands that came to my mind. Yet, I did choose Martø over Let The Bastards Grind's final and most recent release—an Archagathus split from 2024. I found Martø's record much more gratifying and entertaining, if that tells you anything. There's no shame in peddling quality powerviolence. Martø's Francophonic hardcore blast-violence is as tight as the band's firecracker-strung snare drum. Their stop-and-go composition laced with hardcore crowd vocals and pragmatic punk power chords nods to the old school, but plays to the contemporary. Powerviolence purity never really goes out of style.
I'm unsure of what happened to Martø or if we will ever hear more from them in the future, but whatever the case, be sure to look into the band's lone self-titled record because it's already better than what you were going to listen to.
FFO: Lugubrious Children, Ona Snop, The Afternoon Gentlemen
Listen to the album: https://marto59.bandcamp.com/album/mart
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