Soifass are releasing their new album to celebrate their 25th anniversary, and the Berliners have never sounded better, balancing well-measured heaviness with catchy choruses. An absolute banger! Founded in 1999 in East Berlin as an Oi! punk band, they quickly found their own unmistakable style somewhere between punk, hardcore, Oi!, and even the occasional touch of ska (on speed). Fast and driving beats meet thunderous guitars, vibrant melodies, and gritty vocals, all without resorting to genre clichés. They dish it out, they take it, foregoing both moralizing and commercial ambitions. While many bands adapted their sound to the "German rock" trend of recent years, the band around vocalist Viktor has stayed true to its roots. And there's plenty to say in the 12 new songs, calling a spade a spade in typical Soifass fashion: "Hipster-Stomp" is essentially the sequel to their anti-gentrification hit "Großstadtwahnsinn" (Big City Madness), which they're now exploring as their new playground, infiltrating Berlin and other major cities. In "Berliner Walzer" (Berlin Waltz), there's a merciless dance about the ever-widening gap in our dog-eat-dog world. Soifass have always tackled burning issues lyrically in a different and more subtle way. Instead of slogans and simplistic, formulaic lyrics, songs like "Verschwörer" (Conspirators) have a completely different impact when, in the most intimate circle, your partner believes all the conspiracy theories, or in "Exzessiv" (Excessive), which holds up a mirror to the supposedly perfect world with biting cynicism. And after having built this Berlin flagship into one of the best German-language street punk bands for 25 years, they're entitled to look back with "Anglizismen" (Anglicisms). Soifass do this without the usual self-aggrandizement. This band is in a class of its own... Authentic, gritty Soifass! Tracklist English speakers Enemy Flying on rockets Together Through the Night Turning shit into gold Have a good trip Hipster Stomp Berlin Waltz Excessive conspirators Alone on the throne Time stands still