Where and when did I last see LARRIKINS from Goldberg in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern? Was it at Astra in Berlin as the support for Dritte Wahl? Yes, I think so, because Dritte Wahl concerts at Astra were always fixed dates in my calendar. I also remember a gig at Wild at Heart from 2018.
I had a different memory of the band from the small town of Goldberg, south of Güstrow and northwest of Malchin. Based on that memory, I requested the album and now I am somewhat... let’s say disillusioned. This is not because the last beer was a long time ago, but because the band's sound does not match my memories at all.
The ten songs on “Reminiszenz” are musically anchored in mid-tempo punk rock.
The vocals sometimes lean towards Onkelz and similar bands, like in “Arme Wichte” or “Glückskind” and especially in “Unser Leben,” and at times they give off a
Deutschrock impression, somehow heading towards a genre that doesn’t even exist, Schlager-punk rock. So not something like Eisenpimmel, but rather something like catchy rock melodies with somewhat simplistic lyrics that inevitably have to rhyme, like in “Gib nie auf” or “Sehnsucht nach Liebe.”
Musically, it’s all quite catchy and not poorly played, but the combination of a rough voice, sometimes infantile lyrics or passages, and this somewhat forced-sounding “big shot attitude” does not appeal to me at all.
It’s a shame really, because bands from rural areas have a hard time, especially from Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, and it should be clear that the guys are decent. Just for that reason, since their album releases from 2016 and 2019 were published on the label of the band COR, Rügencore Records. Well, that earns them an extra point for sympathy, so the overall result doesn’t look completely like a slam.
