NO BALLS / BLANK VEINS

No Balls / Blank Veins
No Balls / Blank Veins
2016

(Band Submission)

Review by Joey

Genre/s: Noise Rock, Psych, Post-Punk
For Fans Of: Brainbombs, DNA, Twin Stumps, No Form

If you're familiar with this blog, I'm sure you know how much we (I?) love both Blank Veins and No Balls. And really, what's not to love? Both bands have fantastic outputs and play with the repetitive noise rock formula in distinctive, instantly recognizable ways. I've known this split was in the works for a while from correspondence with Blank Veins, and I gotta say it's everything I hoped for.

I guess I should start with No Balls since they're the band on side A. No Balls is essentially half of Brainbombs, and while similarities can be drawn between the two, No Balls puts more emphasis on the hypnotic nature of their music, generally without as much focus on vocals, often ditching them in favor of instrumentals -- the latter of which is the case on this split. But don't worry sports fans, because the atonal trumpet we all know and love fills in the gaps. These guys have an uncanny ability to consistently churn out hit after hit, and I have no idea how they do it.

Fewer people know about Blank Veins (a shame considering how good they are), but hopefully this split gets them the attention they deserve. Hailing from Greece, Blank Veins have carved out a niche for themselves dishing out what can best be described as a terrifying mixture of Brainbombs and DNA. And they also use trumpet. Honestly, they're one of the coolest noise rock bands to come out in the past five years, and despite a relatively small output, have a total mastery of their craft. I know they have future releases planned (one being a split 7" that needs a label...wink, wink) and you should all keep an eye on them (not related to the "wink, wink" comment), because I can guarantee it's all gonna be great.

Short version for short people: big bad riffs and trumpets.
EDIT: Blank Veins use a sax. But it still works to a similar effect.

Tracklist:
1. No Balls - Bright Eyes
2. No Balls - Total Eclipse
3. No Balls - Back On The SNRI
4. Blank Veins - Till It Subsides
5. Blank Veins -  The Next Time
6. Blank Veins - Most Of The Fabric

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