Caca de Luna (Germany) - Sedition (2024)

 

Visual aesthetics are an oft-overlooked aspect of the music appraisal process. It’s about the music, right? But the art associated with an album, along with its title, are the first clues to a record’s theming and tone, and both help turn a collection of songs into a conceptual whole.

Great album art makes you want to check out a record. Even atrocious art can pique one’s curiosity. Mediocre art, however, is the worst offender. It can be like active camouflage in a record store bin, causing the eye to ricochet off it to a more visually stimulating cover.

Sedition, the 4th LP from Jena, Germany’s Caca de Luna, is a casualty of this third type of album cover. Neither offensively bad nor eye-catching, the drab brown cover depicting a nondescript suffering populus (one must assume they are engaging in the act of sedition) hides an important fact about this record: it’s good! I didn’t spend 3 paragraphs discussing art just to dunk on this record, but to bemoan the fact that its plain-looking art hides what ends up being some pretty compelling music.

The music in question occupies various points on a continuum between heavy, death-tinged grindcore and energetic, anthemic crust punk. Fast, snaking guitar lines, blasting drums and growled vocals flow into shouted vocals, pogoing tempos and honest-to-goodness choruses. I discuss its genre on a continuum because blessedly, the song structures don’t follow one rigid template. They flow organically between styles and genre elements as each song requires.

Opener "Toxische Phantasie" is a heavy, riffy ripper that starts the record with the pedal firmly to the floor. Pit-friendly punker "Antimusikalische Aktion" is another standout, blending galloping rhythms with straight ahead grinding speed. Mid-album track "Weed” starts as another straightforward punk tune. Halfway through, it stops abruptly for a sampled bong rip and transitions into a heavy, Spazz-esque outro with the band playing alongside DJ scratching and a sample of Cypress Hill’s “I Wanna Get High”. It's a bit of levity and fun that's welcome alongside the speed and fury, and it's another moment of character that sets the band apart.

Sedition is another strong entry in Caca de Luna's discography, and may even eclipse 2022's Züchtigungstheater. It's worth a listen if you're in the market for post-Nasum precision-machined European grindcore. And it's more proof that you can't judge an album by its cover (even though we all do anyway!)

Sedition is available from Grindwar Records' Bandcamp, which also lists the various partners co-releasing the record and an email address to purchase the LP.