SMAR SW Review - In Unity, Strength for Not Only Rock
Review on nietylkorock1992.blogspot.com SMAR SW - Strength in unity
SMAR SW - "Strength in Unity" (1992)
"W jedności siła" is the first official album of the Rzeszów punks (earlier the guys released a cassette entitled "All the Are Ours" (a direct title, as befits young people with mohawks) in the amount of fifty copies), which also consisted of songs released on the above-mentioned cassette.
"W jedności siła" was recorded in Krakow, on a six-track tape recorder, which can be heard in this "dirty" sound, but it would be a sin to say that the music itself suffered from it.
And I will even go so far as to say that this is one of the qualities of this album - you can hear the spirit of those times - we are talking about the beginning of 1992.
The music on this album is energetic, simple - typical punk ride.
On the album itself (or rather the cassette) we have as many as twenty short tracks characterized by full "chad".
"My Eyes" presents a world that cannot be described as positive; Nevertheless, one should be aware of the picture of reality, so one cannot simply "close" them:
."My eyes are begging, begging to be closed.
I can't do that, no, no, no.
I have to look, I have to see,
I have to suffer, I have to live"
The worst thing is that we are not able to do anything that would bring about any real change, but it is also not appropriate for us to just give up:
"I see everything around me and it all hurts me. And I can't change anything here, I can't give up either."
In "Clergy" Lubry reveals the hypocrisy that we can observe in the attitude of the representatives of the Church (this is how a certain gentleman, the founder of the famous radio related to religious themes, immediately comes to mind):
"The gluttonous clergy with fat necks, steals from the naïve, milks them with money."
"Walcz" is a number about disputes with representatives of the authorities, as always in the case of punk lyrics, given as the so-called "coffee on the bench":
"When you stand eye to eye with a sadist in uniform,
Don't leave your head, look him straight in the face.
Do not yield to the field, do not evade,
unless you get a stone to throw at his head."
A short, strong message.
On the cassette we can also find an opinion saying that the "Prison System" is not conducive to a positive return of the individual to society, and - what is more - it destroys him even more, because:
"The prisoner is in conditions of isolation from society,
in the environment of similar antisocial individuals,
in an atmosphere of constant prison terror and humiliation of human dignity.
And all this is to serve rehabilitation, to enable a return to normal life.
However, it is strange that helping to return a person to society
consists in isolating him from this society and in very derogatory conditions.
The purpose of prisons is only to direct blind revenge."
"The Leader of the Nation" talks about "golden-mouthed" politicians, about their promises that do not translate into reality.
"You spoke to people - they trusted you.
They believed in you - they chose you.
They believed that you really cared about them
Because you said a lot of such things.
You're another fucking politician.
But as soon as you put your snout in the trough,
you forgot about them, you took the mask off your face.
You only care about yourself and your pocket.
Power and money - show your vanity."
Twenty-five years after its premiere - unfortunately still relevant.
I think it gives us a certain pleasure, satisfaction that we can spit on someone, hate someone, because they are different.
And as soon as we put something in a drawer with the inscription "Homeland", we have room to show off.
After all, there are other people living outside our country, worse than us.
"They create divisions to be able to control us
They create boundaries to be able to control us
(...)
Love the earth only to barbed wire
behind barbed wire, it's no longer homeland"
"Look at the man" is nothing more than a denial, a rebellion against the attitude described in the above work:
"Look at a man - not at his faith.
Look at a person - not at nationality.
And then it may occur to you,
that it is the man who counts, not his race."
No skinhead can probably identify with this song. ;)
"Strength in Unity", the track that gave the title to the album, is a call to everyone to oppose the prevailing patterns, the imposition of thoughts and beliefs:
"They want to destroy my mind, they want to destroy me.
They want me to stop thinking, stand in line and listen to orders.
Every day, dead people, programmed, fight my mind.
A priest, a cop, a belfer, a psychologist want me to die and be dead like them.
Let's hold each other's hands tightly, let's not let go under any circumstances.
It is better to die than to be dead - strength in unity, so let us unite."
We also have a miniature on the cassette, a verbal joke in the form of the song "Nie ma piwa", which, by the way, has a pretty funny story.
Well, after making the decision to form SMAR SW, the band's future guitarist, "Yogurth", asked his older brother for guitar lessons with the intention of using them in a punk band.
When he heard the request, my brother didn't agree to it, because he said that "Yogurth" and his buddies would write songs like, well, "No beer, fucking have."
This is how the first piece of this band was born. :)
How can I rate the debut of Slubów?
Well, I certainly can't attribute musical maturity to this album (which I won't fail to mention to the last two albums of this band), but it has a lot of other advantages - first of all, these are uncompromising, blunt and authentic lyrics.
Listening to this album, you can immediately notice that the guys wrote the lyrics themselves - the sincerity of the message is indisputable.
Besides, as I wrote at the very beginning, this "dirty", "rough" sound obtained thanks to the conditions and such and not other times (it also reminds me of the album of another band from the punk movement - the demo of Depression).
The number of songs on the album is also a plus - it doesn't happen often that the band puts so many songs on the album (especially nowadays).
How was the album received by the audience?
Definitely warm.
A few thousand copies of the cassettes sold were enough for the band to be recognizable throughout Poland.
With this album, SMAR SW proved at the very beginning of its existence that the slogan "Strength in Unity" is a very up-to-date slogan.
Track listing:
1. My eyes
2. The clergy
3. Police Station
4. Fight
5. Prison system
6. Thirst for revenge
7. Rockets
8. Blood
9. Sidewalk
10. Skateboard
11. SMAR SW
12. I'm alone
13. Fascist slogans
14. Leader of the nation
15. Homeland
16. Your values
17. Look at a man
18. I Accuse You
19. Strength in unity
20. There is no beer
Ingredients:
- Season - vocals
- Sikor - drums
- Ninja - bass
- Yogurth - guitar
Rating: 7/10
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