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British understatement is a well-known concept.
It might have something to do with the insularity of the landmass.
It might have something to do with the economic situation, but when Kolli, singer in the Icelandic hardcore outfit GAVIN PORTLAND insists that "Unfortunately we're not interesting enough to have something witty to say.
Normal dudes screaming at a wall, it doesn't get more boring than that" he has honed understatement to perfection.
There must be an Icelandic cousin to British understatement.
The Icelanders in GAVIN PORTLAND are particularly good at it.
After a debut album ("III: Views Of Distant Towns", 2007) that garnered a 4K review in Kerrang! and the breathless declaration "if punk rock still means anything to you, check out their stunning new album" by the very same magazine after a GAVIN PORTLAND show, the album in question promises to be anything but nondescript.
Taking into account the facts that the band - due to the unstable economic situation - struggled to pay their studio bill at producer Kurt Ballou's (CONVERGE) God City Studios, that their legendary Icelandic label 12 Tonár pulled back for the same reason and that the album was already recorded during a single week in the summer of 2008, it doesn't come as a surprise that "IV: Hand in Hand With Traitors, Back to Back with Whores" brims with heaviness and aggression.
Kolli: "Lyrically the new one is much more straightforward and less poetic.
We basically wanted it to kick more ass.
" Could this be understated? Definitely so.
