Out of all of the stuff that I've been listening to from the label over the past few weeks, the debut album from Gerda is probably the most aggro release

on Wallace Records. Theres a heavy influence of chaotic, metallic hardcore, but at the same time, this young Italian band exercises an angular, nervous kind

of riffage and composition that actually fits in perfectly with the kind of loud, raucous math rock that Wallace has based their whole label aesthetic

around. To be honest, I've gotten kind of worn out on spazzy, chaotic hardcore and metalcore partly 'cuz I just haven't been hearing that many bands doing

anything new with the sound, but mostly because so much of that stuff just sounds forced to me anymore...you know, if you're going to be playing spastic,

crazed hardcore that sounds like the band is just barely keeping it together, like all of the instruments are on the verge of catching on fire and the songs

are ready to fall apart at any moment, I really want to feel like I'm hearing a band on the edge of an actual group psychotic breakdown, or at least ready to

commit some kind of crime, you know? But this album is one of the few that I've picked up in recent times that delivers that sort of kick to the face that

I'm craving. I think part of what makes Gerda pretty damn radical is that the band is singing in Italian, and we all know that bands that sing in Italian

just sound incredibly pissed off by default. But it's also the amazing melodies and technical, convulsive riffing that they've got at the core of the

controlled chaos of songs like "Dominio Della Mia Lotta", and the apocalyptic urban gloom and jangling guitars of "Vendicare Questo Orrore" that just rip my

heart out. They've got this awesome ultra-metallicized Dazzling Killmen-meets-Neurosis thing going on, and it totally kills. Highly recommended.