ninehertz

There's one absolute and one near certainty with Alerta Antifascista Records - it'll be fiercely left wing, duh, and it'll likely be of an emo-crust variance. And you can arguably add to that a third guarantee, of almost certain high quality of riotous punk music.

Habak, from Tijuana, are described as "melodic crust" - not as maniacally fast or sweat-drippingly, emotionally visceral as some of their labelmates and peers, but that merely gives them their own little niche area. The vocals are still throat scarring, but the intensity of the music is, at first glance, a notch or two down. But this is misleading, a measure of its "metalness", for want of a better word - when you dig down and absorb the whole album, the sheer passion displayed covers for it.

Primarily you'd draw a line to the darker, heavier end of screamo, blackened music but with a relative subtlety and restraint. But it isn't that easily pigeonholed - the crust rears its head on occasion, and on Desarraigo there's even an incongruous bounce, practically melodic punk, it sounds joyous and aggressive simultaneously, and as it finished I was totally won over. They play with the pace nicely, Alienación y delirio goes fast whilst Notas sobre el olvido is gentle, relaxed screamo that positively showers with light.

The last couple of tracks contain uplifting notes and feelings of enlightenment and euphoria. Hacia el abismo is probably the pick of the lot, a delicateness that is still surprising seven songs into the album, giving way from out of nowhere, it unleashes and goes full pelt, completely stunning when as it does. It took me a little time to click, but once I did and by its end, I recognised it as an unexpectedly handsome and emotionally involving album.