Black Market Crash are a skate-punk band from Switzerland who contain members of the now defunct ska-punk band Tastes Like Chicken. Following the release of two CDs under their ska influenced band, and with tours of Switzerland and France in the bag, the band decided to shed a member or two, change its sound and start afresh. Black Market Crash has managed to play with punk bands such as Anti-Flag, Good Riddance, Randy, Death By Stereo and Youth Brigade already, as well as featuring on the 2003 AF Records compilation. Not bad going for a relatively new band. ‘Broken Ballads’, for the most part, is a ferocious skate punk sonic assault, minus an acoutsic track and the ska influenced ‘Silly Summer Song’.
At 15 songs this record is certainly value for money, but for me it’s a little long. There are moments of variation, but for the most part this is a record of high-speed drums and super fast guitar riffs over an Anti-Flag style vocal. In short bursts it’s quite good, but over the course of a full album there’s cause for boredom. ‘Diggin’ and ‘Endgame’ are good songs with a very cool early Epitaph sound, complete with lots of “woahs” which always add extra layers of melody to bands of this ilk. The gang vocals on ‘Castaways’ work well too, again bringing out an extra layer in the music. But all too often Black Market Crash fall into the realms of skate punk cliche and songs like ‘Wish I Could Be Like You’ are just like any other band in the genre – you certainly couldn’t guess they were Swiss. This is good in short bursts, but is probably devoid of some fresh ideas to leave much of a worthwhile impression.
www.blackmarketcrash.com
Bleak and Blue Recs
Paul