Record Review: Vaaska - Todos Contra Todos

Vaaska - Todos Contra Todos LP (Beach Impediment, 2015)
By Nathan G. O'Brien for Scene Point Blank

Vaaska play punk just the way I like it: noisy and fast. Like Criaturas, another band with whom they share membership, all they lyrics are in Spanish; something for which I am a total sucker even through my Spanish is shoddy at best. I mean, I can get through a week in Mexico if I’m only ordering food, taking cabs, and looking for the bathroom but that’s about it. But enough about me. What’s important to know is that this record totally rips.

Vaaska’s versatility is really impressive. D-beat is at the core but surrounding that is a whole load of scorching axe work, agile drumming, and rock ‘n’ roll attitude. The guitar solos on songs like “Guerra Sagrada” and “Masacre” are searing, extinction level licks that explode all over the tracks like mini mushroom clouds disintegrating basements full of crusty punks into piles of ash. And the drumming throughout the whole album drives an anxious, maniacal pace that rarely allows the listener a moment of rest. They play with a real assertive, almost arrogant attitude that I really dig. Kind of reminds me of Nightgaun. Production-wise, it’s fairly clean; not enough echo or white noise to be labeled as “raw”, or as big a room-filling sound as epic crust, but loud as all fuck.  ...Read entire review here.