3 out of 5

Label: Punks Before Profits

Produced by: ?

I got this 7″ free with a purchase, full disclosure. Not that that’s a huge disclosure – I pick up a lot of stuff used out of curiosity, for example – but I suppose it casts some light over a review: this isn’t anything I would’ve chosen myself, and so all I can do is go off what’s before me: a band about which I wasn’t able to dig up much surface info; a .org label (Punks Before Profits) out of Michigan which appears to no longer be active; the umlaut-bearing name which translates to ‘Slay;’ the DIY packaging which aligns with that .org vibe; the zine liner notes, featuring a notebook-ish drawing of a dragon… I mean, I’m kind of expecting my high school friends, having scrounged up some dosh for a small pressing of their indie punk band.

And… yes? I mean, Spläg are not comprised of my high school friends, as far as I’m aware (fact-checking may suggest I didn’t have any), but that’s the vibe here. As such, this bears some of those hallmarks of the best of your friends’ bands: a fair amount of posturing, a fair amount of mimicry, but then all of it fueled by eagerness and some inspiration you probably wish you could’ve mustered, but instead squandered on that book you totally finished but, nah, decided to work an office job instead.

For the curious, this is also an early home for Lemuria-n Sheena Ozzella, a pop-rock band which is a far cry from the grind / hardcore punk of Spläg, in which Sheena and a ‘Noah’ trade screamo shouts atop ‘Nick’ and ‘Ricky’s guitars and drums. If you’re not into grind or hardcore, these yelps may sound pretty humorous – yelps is accurate; guttural growling – yes – but that’s the posturing bit, as the group swings between attempted Discordance Axis-thrash / grind and fellow Michiganians Converge (early Converge…) hardcore punk. That swinging is willy-nilly, and songs go on for too long without much structure, stitched together with some sing-song nursery rhyme bits during which Sheena coos instead of yells. The recording is shit, of course. There are probably better references than those two bands from which Spläg was drawing, but the point is that they were clearly drawing from somewhere, and tossed it in a pot and hit play.

The lyric sheet is proceeded with a long intro that begins: “This is for anyone who ever let their emotions get the best of them…” and then the lyrics themselves, generally indecipherable, seem like way too many words for what we’re actually hearing shouted. Also noteworthy is that three songs are listed per side, but I’m only hearing… two?

Anyway, giggle if you must, especially if you’re traveling back here from Lemuria, but I would’ve been proud of this had it been some youthful release I’d scrabbled together, and regardless of its mish-mash copycat nature, the energy behind it is kind of what punk is all about: who cares if you can play and etc. (though the kids on here can) as long as there’s passion.