A debut without the right to error—such luxury is available to few. DRAMATIST chose Wacken for their first performance, a place where post-punk typically receives a cold reception. A risky move that immediately marked their position: the German collective came to break expectations, and at the same time test whether their sound could withstand a collision with an audience raised on completely different traditions.

The band’s upcoming album “wasting words” runs eight tracks deep, which feels less like restraint and more like knowing exactly when to stop talking. Most bands would bloat this into thirteen songs and kill the momentum by track nine. DRAMATIST hit hard and back off before you get numb to it. They understand that leaving early beats overstaying, something most of their contemporaries never figure out.

“A1: Black Hole” opens the album with a blow that immediately marks the territory. The beat is heavy, guitars create a wall of sound that presses without respite until the middle of the track. There a brief pause appears—seconds of relaxation before the riffs return with doubled force. A straightforward structure, but it works through precise timing and dynamics. Punk that crushes with weight, and the aggression here is physically palpable.

“A4: The League” switches to a different register. Melodies become softer, the tempo slows, but the anxiety doesn’t disappear anywhere—it simply changes form. The track creates space for reflection, where punk energy goes inward, turning into a quiet, pulsating unease. Morning melancholy, an overcast sky, bitter coffee—the track works through the accumulation of mood, and the lyrics here noticeably come to the forefront.

“B1: Glasgow Nights” begins with measured guitar lines that quickly gain intensity. Rain outside the window, grey streets, a city without warmth—DRAMATIST build atmosphere through details, avoiding direct declarations. Vocals sound muffled, somewhere on the verge of breaking, but the breakdown never happens—the tension holds until the end. Urban melancholy, where beauty exists in the very fact of its absence.

“B2: Unknown Hero”—a track about despair that transforms into action. Dark corridors, flickering light, the feeling that there’s no way out, but you have to break through anyway. The song’s structure moves from tension to resolution—closer to the finale, hope appears, not as a loud statement, but as a gradual accumulation of strength. Vocals here are at the limit, but controlled, and the guitars create a sensation of continuous movement through a narrow space where walls press from both sides. A track about inner resources that are discovered where you stop looking for them.

The final track “B4: Go” enters cautiously, with a fragile melody that deceives expectations. It seems the song is weaker than the rest of the material, but then a transformation occurs. Fragility turns into strength, the wounded intonation rises above the pain through a simple command-word. Lyrics here come to the forefront, and punk energy dissolves into a more romantic sound, where guitars soar instead of striking. Clouds, moon, sky—images that in the context of the previous seven tracks work as an exit from the tunnel. Protest remains, but changes form, turning into something life-affirming, and “Go” becomes an instruction for action.

You can bang your head against the wall under “Black Hole,” seek entertainment under Fat White Family, run through corridors in “Unknown Hero” or drown in the puddles of “Glasgow Nights.” DRAMATIST show pain without embellishment, but the final chord—is about exit, about moving upward through acceptance of everything experienced.

Punk often gets stuck in its own aggression, where darkness becomes an end in itself. DRAMATIST go further, using darkness as a starting point. wasting words shows that behind the roar and riffs can hide a romantic optic, capable of discerning beauty in experienced pain. What’s been through recedes, downpour turns into drizzling rain, the bottom becomes a launching pad for ascent. For punk this is an atypical move, and that’s precisely why the album demands repeated listening. Especially the last track—it works as a key to the rest of the material, a place where all accumulated experience is reforged into affirmation. Light at the end of the tunnel appears where its presence seems impossible.

wasting words is quite a dark path that can lead to liberation, and this path passes through complete immersion in darkness. DRAMATIST built the album as a route, where the final point is ascent, but to reach it, you’ll have to go through all the material. If you think punk is only about darkness, I advise you to listen to the album wasting words, at least a few tracks. You’ll see that behind the dark colors, howling, riffs hides a sensitively romantic soul, capable of true love reaching the heavens.

When what’s been experienced recedes, downpour turns into rain, and touching the bottom, you can soar to unreachable heights. Agree, it’s unusual for punk. Your hand involuntarily reaches to listen to everything again, especially to the last track, as to an exit from the labyrinth, the dead end. Only there hides the light at the end of the tunnel, where it’s definitely not expected. So the album wasting words by DRAMATIST became a breakthrough in the genre, proving that even dark colors lead to light, albeit not obviously. Feel this on January 23, 2026.

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