“Forget everything you thought you knew about post-punk - BERLIN 2.0 ignites the final stage in the punk evolution.”
This is what the information sheet says, meant to inform the writer about the second album of the band BERLIN 2.0.
Setting aside the fact that today everything is called post-punk that has anything to do with feelings, screaming, and noisy guitar playing, this phrasing sounds like grandiosity and childish exaggeration.
Upon first listen, I thought, what is this exhausting stuff? I guess I wasn’t in a particularly good mood.
On the second listen, the third listen, and even the fourth listen, I felt something completely different. Something revealed itself that I must have completely overlooked during the first listen.
First, the lyrics caught my attention.
Almost overloaded, every line a punchline. Every word a fist.
In terms of lyrical structure, it sometimes reminds me of Terrorgruppe or The Bottrops. However, both bands had a much too positive basic mood to really be compared to BERLIN 2.0. The atmosphere that BERLIN 2.0 conveys across the ten songs is mostly dark and cold.
The music, angry, dystopian, sometimes reminiscent of Cold Wave, and sometimes I hear bands like Pascow or Love A, is varied. The band itself describes its style as Death-Pop. But pop only appears in small doses. There is more noisy, cold punk rock or post-punk. Excursions into hardcore, NDW, and screamo are intentional.
I’m really not a fan of bands that confuse recording sessions with “primal scream therapy.” Such parts are rare here. They are most prominent in the last song of the album “Jahr ohne Sommer.” A line from the song fits wonderfully as a conclusion to the album. Imagine sailing a ship for a long, very long time across the seven seas, hurricane and scurvy have pushed the crew to the brink of their strength. When hope is almost gone, someone shouts loudly from the lookout on the highest mast, “I think I can see land, not much, but it’s enough.”
There’s still a little bit of hope... somewhere, somehow...
The nine songs before describe with razor-sharp precision the state we find ourselves in as a world, as a society, as Germany, as humans. There’s not much hope there, and how can one better process this state than with irony, wicked sarcasm, and cynicism? The band doesn’t even have to pretend. Yes, this is the world we live in now.
The Stuttgarters are a tough act. “Kaltental” is a brutal work that is unleashed upon the world.
It hurts what comes out of the speakers. The fact that it is melodic, sometimes even fascinating and captivating, is almost ambivalent.
Those who like Love A and Pascow will love BERLIN 2.0.
The band will also be on tour in the fall with Pascow.
I’m looking forward to the support, to BERLIN 2.0.
