Something that we don't feature enough of on CPRW is punk rock from South America. One of the longest running bands are melodic hardcore/skate punk band 69enfermos. 69enfermos formed all the way back in 1995 in Colombia before relocating to Brazil. In 2015 the band released their first full length sung in English named Beyond Orders. This year they released a brand new album named A Place To Call Home. Let's hear how our punk pals in Brazil do it.
Opening track The Lie starts out with a nice little bass line before we are treated with some hard and fast punk rock. No doubt about where the band's sound and influences come from, 90s skate punk! The Lie is about not trusting the government and believing that you are being lied to. The vocals are strong, adding a softer tinge to the music with the high pitched soar that compliments the relentless pounding background music. Attitude is a very positive track. It's about having a positive mental attitude despite all of the bad situations you might encounter in your life. I really like the no thrills approach to song writing that 69enfermos take - there's no showing off, the music is about being accessible and relatable and that's what I love about punk rock music. The third track on A Place To Call Home is titled Rejected. The harmonies on the track are an absolute treat to the ears. Gosh I love a good harmony. The bass and drums really stand out on this track - it rumbles, it pounds and it hits you right in the gut. Rejected is about feeling outcast from society and wanting more from your life.
The fourth track is also the album's title track, A Place To Call Home. This song is about being proud of where you are from despite its flaws. Given that 69enfermos picked this song for the album's title, it's obvious that this is a topic that the band are very proud to tackle. Following this is the song Be Smart Don't Play The Fool. This track has more of a softer pop edge than the four songs preceding it. This track is simply about looking after yourself and trying to make sensible decisions. It's seen as punk to make bad and reckless decisions but it can also mess you're life up so it's quite refreshing to hear a band play a song that encourages people to be smart and not to play the fool. If you like No Use For A Name then you'll probably adore this song. Not The Answer is one of my favourite tracks on the album. The lyric "Punk Is No 'Bout Making The Wrong Decisions, Punk's 'bout Being You" perfectly encapsulates everything that 69enfermos are trying to say on A Place To Call Home. I just get a feeling of enlightenment when listening to the song. A real feeling of "Yeah, that's right. It's so simple but it's right." If I were to ever put a smiley emoji on the end of a sentence in the blog this would be it. The seventh track is named One More Day. The guitars at the start are bursting with energy and get the song off to an excellent start. The song itself is actually fairly sombre, it looks at the ending of a relationship and trying to get it back even if it's just for one more day. This is another track that all NUFAN fans will lap up.
On My Own sees 69enfermos revert back to the positivity that has made this record so wonderful to listen to. It's about believing in yourself and working hard to prove any doubters wrong. As a generally pessimistic person, hearing all this positivity is just the best and I'm finding it all really rather moving. For You To Know is a short little song coming in at only twenty-three seconds long. It's a super sweet love song where the band's singer proclaims his love for his partner. You might say that the song is short but sweet. It does its job in making your heart do that fuzzy thing when you think about somebody that you love. The penultimate song on the album is We. I particularly enjoyed the buzzsaw-like guitars coupled with the melodic nature on the vocals during the verses of the track. The soft Bad Religion-esque "ooozin-ahs" were brilliant in their subtlety, adding another layer to the sound without being too domineering. Last up is the song In The Nineties. When I was reading the track titles before listening to the album and knowing that the band was from the 90s this was the song that I was most looking forward to hearing. Before listening I assumed that this track would be an ode to the legendary 90s skate punk era and I was correct. It's about using music as a tool for time travel and using the songs of a certain era to go back to a time in your life, in this instance to the 90s. 90s punk rock is arguably the greatest era of punk rock and listening to 69enfermos you can really hear the love that the band have for it. They lived it and they're still proudly living it.
A Place We Call Home is a superb record for anyone who needs some positivity in their lives or just loves 90s punk rock. 69enfermos prove that punk rock is superb all over the world, even in the places where you wouldn't necessarily expect to find it. I'll now be making sure to look further into South American punk rock to unearth some more great bands.
Stream and download A Place We Call Home here: https://69enfermos.bandcamp.com/album/a-place-to-call-home
Like 69enfermos here: https://www.facebook.com/69enfermos/
This review was written by Colin Clark.
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