CASINO BLACKOUT from Füssen, Ostallgäu, Bavaria, release their third album, titled “Hinterhof Poesie“, featuring eleven new songs.
The band, which is managed by Kingstar Music like Broilers, is strongly moving in a direction that could open doors for them to major festivals and stadiums with their third album.
The band positions their eleven songs very much in the direction of Broilers. This means there is a fat production, choirs, thick guitar tracks, a driving but never really aggressive drumbeat, and vocals that are nicely in the foreground, allowing you to sing along after the third or fourth listen.
CASINO BLACKOUT is thus musically navigating in shallower waters than before. One could certainly argue about this in detail, but this is my impression. They have left German punk behind and have somehow matured.
This is also reflected in the lyrics. There are few to no slogans. The lyrics often resemble a kind of dialogue. Doubts are expressed, contradictions are mentioned, questions are posed. Lyrically, there are fewer slogans. Thoughtfulness prevails. Even the Marathonmann, who is featured in one song as support, does not help here. This song is not necessarily representative of the album. This song is catchier than the others. This song musically focuses on the lyrics, which naturally lend themselves well to singing along.
In the past, the drawer in which the Bavarians could be sorted was called: Emo-Pop-Punk. However, I do not know if this drawer still exists in the large cabinet of music styles. What I do know is that CASINO BLACKOUT strongly follows in the footsteps of the Broilers.
If I want to listen to Broilers, I listen to them and realize that no one can compete with this Düsseldorf battleship so quickly.
I wonder what these lyrics have to do with Hinterhof Poesie. Are there even backyards in Füssen?
Come to Berlin, to Kreuzberg, Neukölln, Wedding, Schöneberg, and I’ll gladly show you what it means to live in a backyard and produce poetry. But maybe the title is just a metaphor for... for whatever.
This fat production combined with the cerebral lyrics and the arrangements trimmed for sing-along capability does nothing for me.
Sorry, folks, this doesn’t excite me.
I expected more.
