Podium
Podium
the debut LP from PODIUM de Valencia. Conceived by Nick Trampolino, armed with a drum machine and a guitar, this once personal project quickly evolved into a five-piece platoon with the addition of Salva Frasquet on guitar, Ximo Barcelo on bass, Miguel J. Carmona on drums, and Africa Mansaray on vocals. Pulsating with the epic aggression of hardcore, the impersonal and perverse tone of industrial metal, and fully balanced with the liveliness of the authentic surf scene, well be so bold as to describe them as a curious mixture of Ministry (circa 89), Man or Astroman? and the goddamn Go-Gos ablaze with the pyromaniacal tendencies of Steve Albinis Shellac. The combination of speed, skill and abrasiveness here converts every track into a 2 minute descent into the kind of hell youve been dying to enter. The creative motor of the band is precisely this mixture of hate, anxiety, and fear that we perceive in the pommeling and obsessive riffs that constantly intertwine the guitars and bass. The drums are simple, linear and robotic, having deliberately taken out the dynamic possibilities to guarantee maximum protagonism and criminal coolness.