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Rating: The skinheads of the Oi!core scene—when I listen to certain records, I always picture them a certain way: military-style clothes, boots, mean scowls, Nabat or Kreator t-shirts, or polos or shirts with suspenders, patches with the Trojan helmet. Even the naziskins stop acting tough in front of them because you can only think one thing: Lord God, help me, please I don’t want to get into a fight with these guys, please don’t let them get mad.
And that’s exactly what comes to mind when listening to the tracks on a split between two of the fiercest street punk bands from the late ‘90s–early 2000s scene: Duap and Colonna Infame Skinhead.
First up are Duap: their sound is grim and belligerent, apparent right from “Odio,” where the band brings their rhythmic preferences to light. In fact, both bands on this split showcase some of their most “refined” songs, and Duap do their dirty work with the unmistakable rhythmic breaks that set them apart. “Oi! la vendetta” is also excellent. Compared to many other bands, Duap’s music is particularly mean and embittered, both in melody and lyrics, emphasizing themes like rage, hate, and violence.
But the best, as always, comes when Kozza and company hit the stage, offering up two of their most deservedly famous tracks. The snarling guitar introduces “Giustizia,” which brings out the more hardcore side in the riffing, then slows down to an apocalyptic vibe in the verse and opens up into a chorus that, in its simplicity, finds just the right solutions. “Prova...! A costruire dove altri hanno distrutto!” sings Kozza; the lyrics use very broad and vague terms (“uomo,” “morte,” “speranza”) which, together with the cadence of how the first words in each verse are shouted—almost like a desperate cry (“prova,” “uomo”...)—really paint a picture of a ruined, dusty city where a dying skinhead speaks to his heir, urging him to uphold “justice of the streets.” “Non morirà” is another frenzied anthem where it’s clear that one of Colonna Infame’s basic formulas is to take structures and melodies that are fundamentally hard rock at heart and push them to the extreme. The chorus of this track is textbook stuff; there’s also a fantastic cover by Plakkaggio HC. “Nel nostro cuore, la nostra forza! E la speranza, non è mai morta!”: one of the proudest bridges ever written. Of course, I’ve always been struck by how people who would probably (I’m guessing) call themselves Marxists/historical materialists give such (absolutely justified) importance to concepts like emotion, collective memory and sentiment, inner strength, and hope. But so it goes.
The only reason this split isn’t obviously the apex of the Italian Oi! movement of that time and space is that both bands later included those songs on longer records that also featured genuine gems.
Duap and Colonna Infame: two heavyweights on a split that’s Italian punk history. Rating: 85/100.
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