"Voll assi" CD by Normahl

by Matthias Mader (23.01.2006) The title, “Voll Assi“ is presented with a circled A and the license plate for Germany is misused as a punk seal. Yet, looking behind the façade, you'll soon recognise that these superficial phrases are just a mean to get some first attention for the thoughtful material. Examples are, e.g. the social commentaries like “Hartz IV“ or “El Kaida-Shuffle“. Here and there, the band's temper goes too far, like in the furious opener, “Friss und stirb“ (“Eat and die”), with lyrics that fill the vacuum left by Slime: “Friss und stirb, scheiß Staat, Friss und stirb, scheiß Bullenstaat ... Kurz gesagt, du bist die neue DDR”. That's a lot to take. As a whole, “Voll Assi“ is a very angry album with the main focus not on sophisticated arrangements but rather just emotions and giving some nice citations from the old days (“Fuck you very much“, e.g. reminds me a bit of the Sex Pistols).