Belgrade-based band Zgarišta has released their debut album “Gori Svet”, a record that blends raw hardcore punk energy with DIY ethos and a layered, atmospheric approach to sound.
The band Zgarišta was formed in Belgrade in June 2022. It consists of Vuk (guitar), Goran/ac (vocals and drums), and David (bass guitar) – musicians who have long been active on the underground scene.
All members previously played in bands such as Cockroaches, Dead Ideas, Mushroom, Mind Rape, Punkotheque, Cigla in d Vugla, Sobines, and many others.
In terms of musical background, they belong to hardcore punk, with a strong DIY ethos and a consistent underground orientation, uncompromising in both aesthetics and working methods. At the same time, their expression is not bound by genre limitations – they play intuitively, drawing on the music they listened to throughout the 1980s and 1990s.
For this reason, they refer to their sound as “Belgrade Twilight” – a term that resists genre categorization: punk in essence, but free in form.
The band has so far played around fifteen concerts across Serbia and has shared the stage with acts such as Litovsk, Nightwatchers, Screaming Eyes, Nature Boys, as well as numerous local and international bands.
As for their debut album “Gori Svet”, it is an unusual and multilayered release. Across eleven tracks, emotion intertwines with darker tones, melancholy, slower tempos, and strong melodic elements. The theme of rebellion is present, but never explicit – it is conveyed more through atmosphere than through direct expressions of aggression.
At first glance, the music may seem simple, almost stripped down, but the lyrics reveal multiple layers of meaning that gradually unfold behind the apparent simplicity of the performance.
A notable example is the track “Predgrađe”, where elements of Byzantine ison are used in the backing vocals.
Regarding the band’s aesthetic, although its members mostly come from a left-wing libertarian political sensibility, they consistently use Cyrillic script, Old Church Slavonic letters, and Glagolitic script in their visual and cultural expression. According to the band, this has nothing to do with nationalism – on the contrary, the aim is to bring ancestral cultural heritage back into contemporary cultural space and free it from misuse and ideological appropriation.
They conclude with the message: “Although the people will never be free – death to fascism!”
Based on current YouTube views and audience comments, it already appears that the band is attracting attention – but the best way to understand their work is to listen for yourself.
LINKS:
Zgarišta YouTube >> ǀ Zgarišta Facebook >> ǀ
