Totalitar – Vi Ar Eliten review

Totalitar – “Vi Ar Eliten”
(Prank Records)

There’s something about music in another language. When it’s something I understand, like Spanish, there’s a moment of disconnect and then immediate reconnection as you process and translate. When music is in a language you don’t know at all – in this case, Swedish – you either have to read the translation and try and make it fit the words you’re hearing, or just pretty much rely on what sounds coolest.

My tendencies lean towards the latter. However, Totalitar is cool enough to provide a basic set of lyric translations in the liner notes. Vi Ar Eliten is amazingly political and even more pissed off. Basically, it’s pretty fucking fast and really goddamn brutal. The guitars go forward at a pace that seems unstoppable, and the vocals and rest of the band keep pace the entire way.

It’s like Negative Approach and Poison Idea channeled into sheer meanness. After I got done listening to it, I felt as if I’d been hit repeatedly with an ax handle. Scandinavian music has a history of being no stranger to heaviness (read The Lords of Chaos for a metal primer on it), and Totalitar proves their hardcore is no different.

Vi Ar Eliten