BORDERPAKI are releasing their third album "1362". The title is meant to remind listeners of the great storm surge that struck the northwest of what is now Schleswig-Holstein in that very year, claiming several thousand lives.
In this way, the title somewhat recalls "Tsunami", a record by the Rügen band C.O.R. that was released in 2006.
However, BORDERPAKI does not focus on songs about the flood and its effects on people in "1362", except for the song "Rungholt". In this song, there is also a considerable amount of criticism directed at the behavior of people back then, which I personally find a bit exaggerated. One cannot simply transfer the conditions of the year 1362 to today's times.
The twelve songs on this record impress with their relatively high musical ambition, although this ambition sometimes holds back the songs themselves. Instead of really going for it, breaks and tempo changes are incorporated that slow down the pace and make some songs hard to digest.
Lyrically, the album largely revolves around the standard themes of German punk: state, police, Nazis, and the silent masses. The band does add a few new aspects here, but they are by no means reinventing the wheel. Especially with "Bastard bleibt Bastard", they strongly remind one of Zaunpfahl and Dritte Wahl. It's not a bad reference, but it's also nothing new. The song could certainly make it onto the new Schlachtrufe sampler, as it fits, but unfortunately, like with other bands, it is very clichéd. At least after that comes "Unter den (B)linden", which strongly reminds one of the new material from Die Skeptiker, thus providing another very good reference.
Overall, "1362" is not bad, although there is certainly room for improvement. However, the band's own roughness that comes across on the record is, of course, also due to their unique style from Neumünster, and having a unique style is always better than copying a well-known band.
