It seems like the DIY public just have an insatiable appetite for screamo, emovilence, and similar emotive mutations of the core genre and it seems like screamo revivalism isn’t going away any time soon (an alternate version for ‘revival’ naysayers: since its early incarnations, the screamo scene keeps flourishing all of the time). BARABBAS, DU FÖRTAPPADE, the newest Stockholm screamo rookies, have actually been a part of the movement for some time, but this band marks their first “all-in” band endeavour. On their debut record “Discourse”, the musicianship isn’t that remarkable for the most part, but there’s a certain amount of conceptual thinking and lots of atmospheric fills and ambitious, fierce whirlwinds of chaotic carnage that proves them to be unafraid to serve adventurous tracks and play by their own rules. Can’t wait to hear a better produced album from these guys. All of the 6 tracks connect rather than collide, and that’s quite an accomplishment. We have teamed up with the band to give you some insider views on their project, and share a full track-by-track breakdown (available after the scroll). Smaklig måltid!
Asked about their backgrounds, thbe concept of their debut release, and plans for live shows, the band offered the following:
Barabbas, du förtappade is pretty much our first real band even if all of us have had some musical experiences such as touring, playing shows, writing music and so on. This is however the first time we actually put something in that is compeletely ours.
The concept behind the term “discourse” is very loose. It’s something like a sum of the prevailing ideas at a specific time in a specific context. At the same time it is also a very broad concept. I guess this is what this debut record is – the sum of our feelings and ideas during the year when we wrote these songs. As “discourse” is a philosophical and academic notion, you’d find a number of references to the activity of thinking. Make whatever you feel out of it.
We are planning to do some dates around Sweden in the nearest future. Unlike some bands we haven’t done a lot of shows (local or not) prior to releasing our debut record. However, it feels good to know that we have a stable ground to stand on when looking for playing opportunities. Look out for us visiting your city in Europe in the coming time…
“Discourse” was recorded in March 2017 at Lafayette Studios by Oscar Ulfheden & Eli Strååt, mixed by Eli Strååt., and mastered by André Ampuero. Art by Olga Nycander. The EP will be released on light gray tape by Emocat Records (Canada) and on a limited run of 60 clear tape with an alternative artwork by Winter Sea Records (Russia). BARABBAS, DU FÖRTAPPADE is: Cesar – drums, Theo – guitar, Seva – vocals, Marta – bass.
Begrebet Angest
The title meaning The Concept of Anxiety (there’s the first reference to philosophy!) is our shortest and fastest track. The lyrics are in the first hand a reflection on what anxiety is and can be, in different aspects. It’s hard to regard anxiety from an outsider perspective. However, are you really an outsider? The whole world is build on anxious thinking, it seems.
Lyrics:
Two and a half thousand years of varieties. I can’t say what we have reached, if anybody ever did. You still cry for silent reasons, I’m still silent because of crying. To choose or to choose, to die or to die, to live or to live. It’s all.
What Werther Wrote the 15th of March
Our society is systematically molding people into a world view where we constantly consent to wage slavery. It is a desirable condition although most people sometimes, if not always, have a feeling of disgust towards their job. However it is still not comparable to the loathing you feel towards looking for job or being free from it. This song is about being at rage with always having to sell yourself.
Lyrics:
Behold the lust, it is not worth it! Hold your expectations because it’s more like running into a wall. Are we all losers when it comes to earning money? The misery of young people – the misery of everyone. I’m cutting through my ideals, I’m running into a wall, I’m cutting through my teeth.
Die Welt als Wille und Vorstellung
Check out the movie Tokyo Story, that’s where the sample comes from. In combination with the conversation in Japanese (“Isn’t life meaningless?”) the lyrics are disputing the reasons behind life and living. There’s a trend among progressive (and not) youth to “hate” your life and its meaninglessness. A lot of people tend to think it is a way to question materialist, capitalist and status quo values. But it is easily turning into nihilism. What is our passivity leading to? That kind of deeper analysis should also question your role in the power relationships of this world. Read some Schopenhauer.
Lyrics:
What does the will tell about infinity? That if something is repulsive, it grows to be the world. Your struggle is persistenly willing to escape. The engine is the hate. Make me your lover and I’ll believe it’s true.
Världen är vilja, världen är föreställning.
Dining for Apocalypse
Humanity does a lot of unevaluated actions. Although it knows, or has a possibility to know, that based on its conditions it is possible to change, to do better or to at least just analyse itself. Routines and habits, although possibly empty and hollow, are often more operative than arguments or feelings of others or of your surroundings. What do we need to do and to know to change? Our planet is dying, how does it affect us?
Lyrics:
This is a knife party with a couple of million deaths. Machetes in your heads, blunt teeth that cuts through flesh. This is the point when I’m giving up. This is the point when I can’t stand it anymore.
The brain-dead are having a feast at a funeral dinner. Everyday normality, everyone’s happy. This is a knife party, a death manifesto. This is the reason you all should fuck off. This is the point where I can’t stand it anymore. This is the reason you all should fuck off. Couple of millions deaths, couple of decades fucked.
Den dömda
Some feelings and aspects can be felt through everything else. Den dömda (“the sentenced one”) is about guilt and how it can affect every other feeling; every situation can have its root in a feeling of guilt. It’s a ground level for your human interaction and choices.
Lyrics:
Swallow all the guilt down with each and every gulp. That is what a life is built of, structured out of hackneyed deeds. Swallow it all. Scrape all the pieces from every forgotten shadow of your whole. From every surrounding soul that infiltrate your world. Through everyt
Followed by
People are constantly guarding themselves and each others. We have built a panopticon into our society and we make it work without recognising it. We are followed, and not paranoid, by ideas and traditions. We don’t even know what we want of it.
Lyrics:
Primitive rites watching from behind. Follow the rules and wish everyone a pleasant death. Joke about conformity while thinking of it as a deed. This tradition is a dogma, your tradition is a theft. A wish is a pleasant death, a wish is a life without common theft of mind.
