Review: Ex-Cess – Osiguranje životne večnosti

An album with a real punk story!

This review is a bit particular, I’ll talk about an album that was recorded in Belgrade in 1991 by one of the most promising punk bands of the Yugoslavian scene at that time. The album is entitled: Osiguranje životne večnosti that means ‘Eternal Life Insurance Policy’: a prophetic title if we think about the story of this work and the incoming Yugoslavian war (it started literally some days after the recording process). Why am I telling this? Because here is where a real punk story starts. The 14 tracks were recorded on tape before the conflict but it was not possible to distribute them… But even with an ongoing war a tape could reach a safe place in Croatia, beyond the newborn border, where a local label called “Ill in the head” started to produce copies and distribute them in the underground scene, a true D.I.Y. distribution! A small action with a great importance for the counterculture, punk has no borders, it survives in spite of states and governments!
The tapes were transferred to vinyl in the USA two years ago, in 2017, from June 2019 you can find the tracks even on Bandcamp.
After all this prequel let’s talk about the music… a short intro and the album starts, it’s a jump into the past: catching ryhtmic, sharp voice, fast and never-boring tracks.
A song after the other the album flows full of energy, for sure everyone will sing the chorus in ‘Babylon by bus’, due also to the fact that it is a rare English chorus in a work that is mainly in Serbian. A mention also for ‘I want you for Ex-Cess Army’, song with the featuring of a lot of voices from the Yugoslavian scene of that time, these punx were really tough!

For sure we are talking about a particular album, it has nothing to envy to other more famous and mainstream albums, you should really listen to it! It tells us a small story that takes place in the folds of the ‘main official History’, a proof of the power of punk, that is not just music… it is thought!

Rating 8/10

Review by Max