Stromble Fix - Incomplete Stories ... It Slowly Comes to an End (2019)

Already since about 1990 Stromble Fix cavort in the German Underground - albeit with interruptions and smaller reshuffles. Most recently, the Ruhrpott-Rocker released an album with Toilsome Days in 2014, so it was time for fresh material. And this may not happen so often, because the full name of the new LP is Incomplete Stories ... It's Slowly Comes To An End, which at least implies a definitive ending of your own music creation. Whether this is actually meant, I can not clarify here in the context of my review.

Whether it is so, but sincerely not so important. Incomplete Stories is a really exciting release on its own. In their very own style, which dances somewhere between post-punk and grunge, Stromble Fix has recorded a good dozen new titles across their own creative bandwidth. The trio offers both very catchy numbers like Summer Storm and Sir John Peel, as well as extremely freaky and sometimes even strenuous pieces, such as Win Or Lose. But no matter if it's punk or very trashy, the overall feeling is somehow up, and even the difficult pieces do not annoy, but disturb in an interesting way. In addition, frontman Frank Stromble plays his vocal proximity to Jello Biafra (the original singer of the Dead Kennedy, for those who do not know it) very skillfully on some songs. He's particularly brilliant at It's Up To You - next to the tracklisting Gloomy Sunday Morning my personal favorite on Incomplete Stories.

In the end, Stromble Fix move on the new album in their usual waters, without limiting themselves too much. The three gentlemen clearly show that one can consciously face the mainstream and thereby create thrilling music. Of course, according to many a listener with many a track a big question mark over the head wear ... But who unbiased opens the cosmos of Stromble Fix, can dive deep into Incomplete stories and feel comfortable in it.