TRAITRE - Traitre by TRAITRE

From American Oi :
I wasn’t familiar with French Oi! / hardcore formation TRAITRE, so when I saw this demo being released and put in my order I was under the impression I was dealing with a brand new band. But after doing some research it turned out the band isn’t as ‘new’ as I thought, started out in somewhere in 2012 and released two vinyl EP’s prior to this cassette on the, to me unknown, label LADA Records.

What does it matter for this review? Probably not a lot, but after hearing this self-titled cassette over a dozen of times I really wished I heard about these guys before! Because after hearing the songs “Emeute”, “Ma Rue”, “Opíníon Opínel”, “Liberté Surveíllée” and “Les Autres” I have to conclude that TRAITRE is right up my alley. They are (and sing in) French, their sound is raw yet catchy making you sing-along the choruses in no-time and has a fast pace to it. With five tracks barely clocking seven minutes (if I exclude the chanting at the end of the tape) they keep it up to speed making you clearly hear the band’s Oi!-punk is soaked with hardcore influences. Their label didn’t describe TRAITRE as a mix between Negative Approach and the ‘Chaos En France’ days for no reason, they did that because they’re right.

So if you like the French stuff, got a cassette deck and you are looking for that raw and authentic sound in your hardcore influenced Oi! music you might want to check this TRAITRE tape, and perhaps their previous work, out. I know I’ll be on the lookout for those EP’s now though!

Thrash Zone Tapes is tapes subdivision of Offside Records
www.offsiderecords.fr