Review: Güerra – Güerra

First album by Güerra is finally out!

Burdèl! It’s time to talk about this wonderful work, already dear to many of us, that is the self-titled album by Güerra, directly from Romagna!
This debut album, published on 12” and tape, is the product of the collaboration of countless realities, which are: Ansaldi Records, Tigre Records, Bologna Punx, dischi grezzi, Equal Rights Forlì, Nuclear Chaos, Rumagna Sgroza Records, Stray Dog, Strigide Records, the newborn True Believers DIY Booking, and obviously Radio Punk!

Proud of this co-operation, let’s all make a war face as the Major Hartman orders us and enjoy the first track “Everything We Need”: I’m sure that you’ll croon this sing along all day, as it happened to me.
The same goes for the second track, a new anticlerical hymnSogno Mattine Senza Campane”, that has to be sung at the top of your lungs firstly downstage on Saturday night, and then the following Sunday morning, when we are still recovering from the night before and church bells punctually start to sound. Damn!

The melodic “Gang Of Brothers”, soooo pleasant and with a traditional style, precedes one of my favorites of this album, that is “Brucia Vita Brucia”: music and lyrics go hand in hand getting tougher towards the end, giving the listener a unique emotion.

Another song I can find myself in is the next “Fino A Qui Tutto Bene” (with reference of the cult “La Haine”), the  lyrics of which contain real gems.
If you listen to this album carefully, you can notice that it’s very varied, like a mix of different genres: for example, “This Is Not The End” has an atmosphere that recalls me the ‘80s sound, a bit dark but decisive, with a sensational guitar riff. The same applies to “Cattiva Stella” and “You’ll Never Understand”, which sounds in a Blitz style.

We can also find typically punk songs, even if different from each other, like “Tommy Says” and “What’s Your Name?”, and a song, the saddest and gloomiest of the entire album, “Lettera Ad Un Amico”, “dedicated to a friend who has passed away”.
Certainly could not miss an artistic collaboration, in fact we can find it in “Where We Belong”, written and sung by Zanna (NoWhiteRag). Of this definitely stand out the “ghost chorus”, creating in this way a nearly horror punk climate.
All in all, I think this record is well-registered, varied and certainly not boring. I can’t wait to get my copy, and you? (rhetorical question).

Album rating: 9/10