Thirty years after the heyday of grunge, this young Berlin trio are keeping the spirit alive with their raw, take-no-prisoners energy. With Katharina Ott-Alavi on guitar and visceral vocals, Karoline Paschedag on bass and Marie Westphal pummeling the drums, 24/7 Diva Heaven is reminiscent of bands such as L7 and Veruca Salt.
On this, their sophomore album, the outfit don’t hold back, turning the gain and noise controls on their guitars all the way up. Gift carries far more range and composed writing than the band’s debut album, Stress, offering both delicate tracks, such as the excellent ‘These Days’, and more guttural sounds, as in ‘Rat Race’.
This dichotomy is reflected in the album’s title; does it mean ‘gift’ in the English sense, or Gift in the German sense, meaning ‘poison’? Both, it seems. This is a record delivered to you with a sense of kindness and love, which might also make you a little sick. Either way, I’ll take it.
- Gift out now
