‘Odje je aktors iz sjene bit će uplakanih lica, Jer lagedan je živet ugladenih varalica’ (Ukopani) / ‘Where the actors come from the shadows, there will be tearful faces, Because the life of polished deceivers is easy’ (Buried)

As much as I enjoyed Indikator B’s 2024 self-titled debut 7-inch, I must admit that, initially at least, it wasn’t one that I returned to with a religious regularity.  Then, I caught them on their UK tour last May and suddenly everything came together for me, with an entirely refreshed resonance.  Better late than never.

The Zagreb band are now back with their follow-up four track EP, II.  Their approach continues to be defined by a taut focus that is easy to mistake for simplicity.   The song craft is lean, fast, and underpinned by a powerful yet restrained rhythm section.  Meanwhile, the vocals bring a drawled, desperation shrouded detachment to bear as they contemplate a society mired in corruption and cast in the shadow of squandered lost futures.

The key lies, perhaps, in the deftly understated use of darkly sombre melody in both the riffs and the vocals.  It imbues these tracks with a coldly melancholic atmosphere that elicits memories of the austerity that defined 1980s’ Eastern European hardcore.  The frenetic intensity of Ovdje, Baš Tu (Here, Right Here) and the choppily surging Zadnja Stanica (Last Station) get proceedings underway.  The flip side then sees the anarcho-punk fuelled opening to Iza Rešetaka (Behind Bars) evolve into a dramatically assertive crescendo, before things then slow a touch for the bleakly brooding finale of Ukopani.