Aortes - Carrion (2025)

It took 6 years and one change of name for the Lithuanian post-metal outfit (now called) Aortes come back on my blog. And there is a good reason for that too as their new album (second under this moniker and 5th in general) is a masterful dose of heavy atmosphere and post-hardcore anger.

The artists themselves think highly about the release, calling it a "brand new and more mature sounding album" and I have to agree. It is no simple post-metal/hardcore music here, it's more nuanced, deeper and more attractive face of the genre while still retaining the clue of this kind of sound: energy and expression. However, parts such as Carrion with the spoken word vocals or the addition of the saxophone sound in the same song, or an entire ambient intermission in Black Mold make me appreciate the release even more. Not to mention that they, simply speaking, turn up the atmosphere of this dense music.

I can't stress enough how good the atmosphere is on this album. It's unsettling like an alarm siren, it's heavy like a tank, it's slow and steady and suddenly very fast. I love it, especially on When We Cease, a track that left me lying on the ground overwhelmed by its weight. Fantastic stuff.

Carrion costs whatever you want to pay.

Check: When We Cease

Country: Lithuania

Genre: noisy post-metal

Autism - Have You Found Peace? (2019)

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Goofy Ginz - 'Twas Fun (2023)

An alt rock post-hardcore band is a rare thing on my blog, but the Polish band of Goofy Ginz draws from so many interesting music genres that I couldn't just miss on their debut album. 'Twas Fun surprised me with the amount of noisy and atmospheric moments that make the music here richer and deeper.

The vocals are very post-hardcore-like: sometimes cleanish, sometimes desperate-sounding in true screamo-like fashion. But unlike I'd presumed, the compositions are very interesting: they are long and attacking the audience with loud guitar passages that makes me think of many genre inspirations from psychedelic mesmerizing rock to atmospheric post-rock (Rav Muff) with great quality of guitar sound. But that's not all, there's also some more exotic, from my perspective, elements like some ska and hip-hop bits. A lot is going on from the beginning to the end of the album and it's one of those that make boredom out of the question.

'Twas Fun costs 3.5 EUR (15 PLN).

Check: Doomed

Country: Poland

Genre: post-hardcore noise rock

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Milanku - À l'aube (2023)

Milanku, the Quebec representation on the world's post-metal scene, is around for over 15 years now. Their ever-growing discography has recently been expanded by a new album called À l'aube.

The band "strikes with its brutal character, both nostalgic and melancholy" as they describe their music on their Bandcamp page. And it is very true: while they come from the post-hardcore environment, it is not that obvious on the new album: there's more strictly melancholic, post-rock-like compositions that should appeal to those who seek this feeling of ethereal sadness in the heavy, guitar music. However, this doesn't mean that the post-hardcore elements are completely forgotten, quite the opposite in fact, they still appear in the compositions. They do so from time to time, making the effect even more striking: when you hear the desperate screams, you know that this is an important, monumental moment and you should pay attention (as it is in À l'aube; prêchant la mauvaise nouvelle).

This track, the title of which translates to "At dawn; preaching the bad news", is a good example of how poignant the shouted lyrics are ("On each of us/ The noose is tightening/ The very essence/ Of great sadness") and how well they cooperate with the pure guitar melancholia (and with the vocals in À l'aube; nous sommes disparus provided by the Swedish jazz singer, Erika Angell).

À l'aube costs 7 EUR (10 CAD).

Milanku - Monument du non​-​être & Mouvement du non​-​vivant (2018)

Check: À l'aube; nous sommes disparus

Country: Quebec, Canada

Genre: melancholic post-hardcore

Label: Folivora Records

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VAUTOURS - Live Forever (2023)

VAUTOURS, or an "angry 4-piece act of Noisy Rockin' (Post)-Hardcore / Punk shit", are from northern France and their music leaves a phenomenal impression and a heavy burden on the listeners. It's certainly the case with the last instance of their EP trilogy called Live Forever.

After Hail and The Queen, the band comes back once again with their extremely harsh and heavy, but also undeniably smooth and flow-rich post-metal music. Especially the opening track makes my neck thrill with excitement: there's not much of vocals yet and the whole of the compositions feels like a bullet of overwhelming noise. I love it. Afterwards the shift is slightly changed, thanks to the unique vocals that feel equally as post-hardcore as they resemble the over the top dark cabaret type of expression. I can feel some of Serj Tankian or Gogol Bordello here: these teatrical, exagerated punk vocals that are perhaps the most expressive way of singing there is.

One more important thing: their cover art game is top-notch!

Live Forever costs 3 EUR.

Check: Live Forever

Country: France

Genre: punk post-hardcore

Label: Marci Satan !

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Altair - Siempre habrá luces en otro lugar (2022)

The third album from the Spanish Altair is here. After the fantastic Nuestro enemigo back in 2019, Siempre habrá luces en otro lugar makes a perfect comeback to the angsty and energetic world of the band's post-hardcore music.

There's something in Altair's music that keeps me interested in their releases despite the fact that I'm not really a post-hardcore person. However, the screamy vocals here sound honest and very, very engaging. They sound like a true scream of anger and desperation without forgetting about being part of a music composition. And true to this vibe, the album starts with screamed out "The circle does not stop/ The rust of the years flies over me, creating a dense black sphere", tons of self-conscious thoughts of a human being that can be universally relatable. And anxious over. 

This atmosphere breaks at some point when in Divino tesoro the music suddenly becomes an out-of-place pop-rock derivative, but it doesn't last and the whole song dies in static noise. The whole album combines post-hardcore's desperation and, curiously, hope as even the title that translates to "There will always be lights somewhere else" can be read in two different ways.

Siempre habrá luces en otro lugar costs whatever you want to pay.

Altair - Nuestro enemigo (2019)

Check: Réplica (nadie por quien llorar) 

Country: Spain

Genre: desperate post-hardcore

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Besna - Zverstvá (2022)

Besna are from Bratislava, Slovakia and create "mournful melodies and mad screams from the Carpatian underneath". Their heavy music is complimented by folk inspirations and a good deal of atmosphere building. We can now check it out on the band's debut album called Zverstvá.

The band has this unique ability to successfully combine the aggression and rapidness of black metal with catchiness and attractiveness of the tunes. Yes, it is extremely loud and guitar-heavy, there are only metal-like screaming vocals, it does sound violent and desperate and its this music's advantage, no doubt about it. But there's also a good flow, the compositions are very much engaging and entertaining, not only for the metal music lover - also post-rock aficionado would find it very appealing.

Besna seem to take inspirations from the might of nature (in L'adovec with its touching similes: "A snowflake falls, followed by another/ A blizzard of lies/ Beneath a ton of sediment/ the truth is altered") and folk art. The latter is not only about the beautiful cover art that uses a minimalist take on eastern folklore, but it's also about the construction of the songs that, when you think about it, is not so different from the traditional folk music.  

Zverstvá costs 4 EUR.

Check: Spev Drozda

Country: Slovakia

Genre: atmospheric black metal

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Thought Trials - Full of Sound and Fury, Signifying Nothing (2022)

Josh Martin comes from Buffalo and makes his music under the moniker of Thought Trials. After releasing several singles and EPs, this year the time has come for him to show the first LP called Full of Sound and Fury, Signifying Nothing, and, spoiler alert, it's really good.

The artist feels good in more than one convention; the album starts like a good old post-rock release should - with guitar-based, atmosphere-building composition that is being ornamented with moody spoken word samples. But already the second track, Kintsugi featuring Lauren Davis and Erin Malone of Greybloom, adds to this mix a real guitar riff-fest that is complimented with post-hardcore vocals that create this engaging, not-too-overwhelming mix of various approaches to good, mostly instrumental guitar music. And there are fragments that get close to instrumental ambient too, especially the most poignant track here, the album's closure in the depression-themed Belonging.

Let's not forget that track Hedonism is featured on the Ukraine Relief Compilation by The Post-Everything Collective, which, apart from the obvious, money-raising reasons, show-cases a huge range of big post-rock talents and the sole fact that Thought Trials is present there, speaks volumes.

Full of Sound and Fury, Signifying Nothing costs 10 USD.

Check: Guilt and Shame

Country: New York, US

Genre: solo dark post-rock

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Sugar Horse - The Live Long After (2021)

They call themselves "decidedly average" and playing "monotonous rock" and it does sound a bit fishy for me as their sound is far from being average, that's for sure. The Bristol-based band, throughout several years, released three EPs while getting ready to showing their LP debut. This finally happened at the end of August and I must say, the new album The Live Long After struck me with its sound.

I adore how loud their music feels. Thanks to the dispersed quality of the vocals and screams, the guitars seem to be even louder, so that the audience feels the noise in the whole bodies, every bone vibrates each time the music goes up. And it does it a lot - there's quite a lot of quieter parts where the clean vocals or even basses are put in the spotlight, only to get consumed by the rabid guitars sooner than later. This comes from various inspirations the band admits to having: from shoegaze to doom metal to stoner music, every one of them seems to be audible on this album. The quality of the noise is particularly impressive in the first songs of the album (after I Am Not Now - "an anti-hymn based on an ancient Byzantine chant" serving as an intro) with Shouting Judas at Bob Dylan being my personal number one. 

There are also ballads here and I find them a bit less exciting. However, they represent the band's modus operandi, as the artists create things in slower pace, or, as they call it themselves, they "have a complete disregard for urgency", not to mention that even the slowest ballads here have to drown within the lovely ocean of noise eventually.

The Live Long After costs 7.5 EUR (12 AUD).

Check: Shouting Judas at Bob Dylan

Country: UK

Genre: noisy post-metal

Label: Small Pond Records/Art As Catharsis

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Dola - Czasy (2021)

Dola is Polish artsy and environmentally aware post-metal band who debuted last year with a well-received self-titled album. Now it's the time (it's a pun) for the follow-up with the intense and extremely unnerving in many ways album called Czasy.

This album is said to be an escapism tool for the band, used to leave this troublesome times. And as such, it is particularly melodic for post-metal music. On the other hand, it is meant to be a commentary for the reality around us as it is now (which is suggested by the band's name (translated to "Fate") and the album's title ("Times")), and this reality is drawn in very dark colours due to, for the most part, the climate crisis that will prove to be the humanity's main disaster in the history. You can notice it in the track titles (Wszystko odrośnie meaning "Everything will grow again", presumably after human cease to exist) but mostly in the very bleak, very heavy-burden-depicting music.

It's not only about the crushingly massive guitars and slow-paced compositions that feel like the title's "time" - slow but inevitable, nothing you could run from. In general, it is more about gloomy ambiance than pure desperation, as if the artists were already at peace with what's coming (best audible in the darkly sacral and airy moments). But there are still fragments that indicate the incoming doom and the chaos that will come right after in a very desperate way, as the beginning of quite jazzy Kije ("Sticks") and the occasional post-hardcore-like vocal intrusions all over the place.

Czasy costs 20 PLN.

Check: Nowa jesień

Country: Poland

Genre: apocalyptic post-metal

Label: Widno

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Colision - Lost Ghosts, Vol. 1 (2021)

Two years after showing an extremely interesting debut album HEALING IS NOT LINEAR, the French band Colision (watch for the spelling) are back with a new EP that includes some quality noisy guitar sounds and dreamy loudness of the best kind. Let's try Lost Ghosts, Vol. 1.

The EP is so short it could as well be a single or perhaps a part of something bigger, like the title suggests. It features music kept in similar vibes as the previous album - psychedelically diverse approach to noisy genres like shoegaze, noise rock, etc. The guitar sounds are extremely heavy, ready to crush the audience at any time but also have these smooth vibes that characterize more shoegaze-only artists like 93millionmilesfromthesun for instance. Also the dispersed, hidden and very ethereal vocals point in this direction. However, the compositions have something wild about them. The pace changes all the time as do the ideas what a particular track is about. It's not the chaos of mathrock but definitely some influences there, especially that there are also more furious, metal-like vocals in the backgrounds, adding up to the eclectic ethereality of the compositions. 

Lost Ghosts, Vol. 1 costs whatever you want to pay.

Check: swim while it rains 

Country: France

Genre: mathrock shoegaze

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Gonemage - Mystical Extraction (2021)

I'll be honest, chiptune is the music genre I appreciate the least to call it mildly. However, Gonemage is the first project ever that made me question this view. Garry Brents' works combine it with energetic and dark black metal and the result are great, available now for the audience on the project's debut album called Mystical Extraction.

Earlier this year I posted about Lorem Ipsum, the French neoclassical post-hardcore band, and I was pretty much shocked with that blend, Gonemage though is something even more peculiar. Brents is an artist who has an impressive resume of projects he's been involved in, this one is surely the weirdest (although it's just my assumption). The album is meant to be a concept album, the theme of which is, quite naturally, a story within a video game - more about it with some quite vivid details can be read on the album's Bandcamp Website.

The colourful midi sounds of chiptune here, after combining them with the metal pace and vocals, get a different vibe to them - rapid, dangerous and extremely engaging. Especially that the metal elements here are taken from its darkest and most violent subgenres and only the chiptune tones this down a bit. Still, this is the kind of music that gives the audience so much energy, it is impossible not to dance and/or pogo to it. And most certainly one that is very unique, a music born from a combination I would never even thought is possible.

Mystical Extraction costs whatever you want to pay.

Check: The Gullying and the Purple Hoax

Country: Texas, US

Genre: chiptune black metal

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Lorem Ipsum - Vivre encore (2021)

The French band Lorem Ipsum is probably one of the most intriguing things I've listened to this year. Their music can only be described as neoclassical post-hardcore and this says it all. The combination of classical instruments and desperate vocals is stunning and can be admired on the band's second album Vivre encore.

Perhaps neoclassicism is not the best term here as the compositions on the album are usually kept in a very post-hardcore-like, fast-paced and chaotic way. The violins (that are sooo exciting with those vibes) as well as piano keys resemble more some crazy folk energetic tunes but suited up in a nice, baroque form. The complexity and the untamed energy of this music fill the soul of the listeners with powerful joy. And there's still the coolest part - the screamo vocals. Those are, as the genre dictates, screaming, desperate and violent. The contrast here is what builds the uncanny awe that stayed with me for the whole time the album was on.

You can hardly not appreciate the neoclassicism here either. Some introductions are composed as delicate, beautiful pieces for piano and violins only to get violently torn into pieces after a few seconds. And to make the whole thing even more peculiar, the album is meant as a "concept album about body failures" which fittingly corresponds with the cover art but unfortunately cannot be admired without the knowledge of French. Still - unique and interesting, just like the whole release.

Vivre encore costs 7 EUR.

Check: Véro

Country: France

Genre: neoclassical post-hardcore

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L'homme Absurde - Belong (2020) EN

The Russian band L'homme Absurde really can into dark and exciting post-hardcore. Just like they did two years ago on Sleepless and like they do on the new album called Belong.

What counts in their music are both aggression and ambiance. The former is provided by post-hardcore vocals and the high pace, the latter by the post-metal vibes all around. The impressive part is how fast and energetic are the songs, very much due to the very metal-like drums but also the compositions and impressive guitar riffs - this is especially well-audible in the title track Belong or in the passion-filled Burn. This track makes adrenaline in the rawest form, the track is 6 minutes long but still, it doesn't stop even for a second. 

And we can't ignore that extremely atmospheric cover art. Beautiful thing.

Belong costs 7 EUR.

Check: Burn

Country: Russia

Genre: energetic post-metal

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L'homme Absurde - Belong (2020) PL

Rosyjskie L'homme Absurde ma patent na mroczny i ekscytujący post-hardcore. Tak jak robili to dwa lata temu na Sleepless, tak robią to na nowej płycie Belong.

W ich muzyce liczy się i agresja i nastrój. Pierwszej dostarczają post-hardcorowe wokale i tempo, drugiego - post-metalowa otoczka. Wrażenie robi jak szybkie i pełne energii są tu utwory, na pewno jest to zasługa bardzo metalowej perkusji, ale też zwięzłych, choć niekrótkich kompozycji i efektownych riffów - zwłaszcza słychać to w tytułowym Belong, czy w naładowanym agresją Burn. Ten ostatni to adrenalina w czystej postaci, kawałek, który mimo, że trwa prawie sześć minut, nie zatrzymuje się nawet na chwilę. 

No i dodajmy do tego nadzwyczaj klimatyczny cover art, piękny.

Belong kosztuje 30 złotych (7 EUR).

Sprawdź: Burn

Kraj: Rosja

Szufladka: energetic post-metal

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Caspian - On Circles (2020) PL

Oczywiście tego zespołu nikomu przedstawiać nie trzeba. Amerykanie wydali swój piąty album, którym potwierdzają, że są w ścisłym topie światowego post-rocka. Jeśli ktoś jeszcze go nie słyszał, teraz jest czas na On Circles.

Jest ona bez wątpienia flirtem z chaosem. To z niego wyłania się pierwszy kawałek, Wildblood, to on czyha w każdym kolejnym gdzieś pod powierzchnią gitarowych melodii, przejawiając się a to w brzmiącym całkiem elektronicznie Flowers of Light, a to w post-hardcorowym Nostalgist, czy w końcu w zachwycających rozmachem i post-rockową monumentalnością Onsra (niefortunna nazwa dla polskich odbiorców) i moim ulubionym Collapser.

Podobnie jak to zrobili niedawno We Lost the Sea, Amerykanie urozmaicili swoją płytę kawałkiem, który nie dość, że zawiera wokale, to jeszcze klimatycznie i gatunkowo jest daleko od reszty albumu. Tutaj zaśpiewał Kyle Durfey, wokalista Pianos Become the Teeth, którego wielu kojarzy raczej z post-hardcorowych wrzasków, tutaj pokazał więcej chwytliwej liryczności. Jesli chodzi o gości to pojawia się również fantastyczna Jo Quail ze swoją wiolonczelą. Solidna płyta.

On Circles kosztuje 32 złote (8 USD).

Sprawdź: Collapser

Kraj: Massachusetts, US

Szufladka: chaotic post-rock

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Caspian - On Circles (2020) EN

Of course I don't have to introduce this band to anyone. The Americans released their 5th album recently and proved their the absolute top of the world's post-rock scene. If somebody hasn't listened to it yet, it's time for On Circles.

It's undoubtedly a flirt with chaos. It's where the first track, Wildblood, emerges from, it's what lurks somewhere under the layer of guitar melodies appearing in quite electronic form in Flowers of Light, or in the post-hardcore in Nostalgist, and finally, it's what inspires awe with the grandeur and monumentality in Onsra and in my favourite Collapser.

Similarly to what We Lost the Sea did, the Americans enriched their album with a song that involves vocals and is quite far from the rest of the album climatically and genre-esquelly speaking. The singer here is Kyle Durfey, the vocalist of Pianos Become the Teeth, whose probably more associated with post-hardcore screaming by many people, here showed some lyricism. Another great guest here is also the fantastic Jo Quail with her cello. Solid stuff.

On Circles costs 8 USD.

Check: Collapser

Country: Massachusetts, US

Genre: chaotic post-rock

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Altair - Nuestro enemigo (2019) EN

It'a a rare thing for such a very post-hardcore music to be posted about on this blog. So the fact that they are here means that this music is a bit different, good, intriguing, whatever you call it. Let's listen together to Nuestro enemigo.

In their own words, the band situate their music on the boarder between screamo and post-rock. And it's very audible on the album. Although it starts with this desperate, aggressive but also melancholic in a way vocal/scream. But this album is not only about it. A nice touch is including some spoken word vocal which in Spanish for me automatically sounds like a sample taken from a movie. Separate words of admiration are to be said about the music layer. The guitars and compositions often relate closely to post-rock, just as said before, and some tracks like Distancias, fronteras with its loud finish, or the title track Nuestro enemigo boost this opinion. Not to mention the almost perfectly post-rock finish in Afasia.

Nuestro enemigo costs 3 EUR.

Check: Nuestro enemigo

Country: Spain

Genre: screamo post-rock

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Altair - Nuestro enemigo (2019) PL

Rzadko kiedy na tym blogu wita tak czysty post hardcore. A więc sam fakt, że Hiszpanie z Altair się tutaj znaleźli świadczy o tym, ze ich muzyka jest inna, dobra, intrygująca. Niepotrzebne skreślić. Posłuchajcie ze mną Nuestro enemigo.

Sami sytuują swoją muzykę na granicy screamo i post-rocku. I to słychać na płycie doskonale. Zaczyna się co prawda tym desperackim, agresywnym ale też na swój sposób melancholijnym wokalem/screamem. Tylko że to nie tylko o niego na płycie chodzi. Fajnie brzmi też wokal mówiony, spoken word po hiszpańsku automatycznie brzmi dla mnie jak wyjęty z filmu. Na osobne słowa zasługuje natomiast warstwa instrumentalna. Gitary i kompozycje często kojarzą się z post-rockiem właśnie, a takie kawałki jak zakończone głośnym finałem Distancias, fronteras czy tytułowe Nuestro enemigo, tylko to podkreślają, nie wspominają już o czysto post-rockowym finiszu w Afasii.

Nuestro enemigo kosztuje 13 złotych (3 EUR).

Sprawdź: Nuestro enemigo

Kraj: Hiszpania

Szufladka: screamo post-rock

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Washers - Drown (2019) EN

Washers are "four piece eclectic feedback worship", they come from Vancouver and play some of the most interesting psychedelic rocks of the autumn. Fantasy and noise, this is what a lot of on the new album Drown. 

First thing I thought of when listening to their music is how the vocalist's voice is similar to the one of Harry McVeigh of White Lies. But instead of being accompanied by quasi-goth rock, there's loud and unforeseeable psychedelia. Ever-changing pace, rapid fragments of silence proceeded by solid doses of guitars - these are the Canadians' compositions like. What's important, sometimes, like in Hecate Strait, their music turns into legit post-rock and it is still pretty good. And the further the album goes, the more eclectic it gets as Manleash in some places gets into darkwave while in another shows a lot of post-hardcore and so on and so on. Some fragments definitely worth checking out.

Drown costs whatever you want to pay.

Check: Hikkimori

Country: Canada
Genre: eclectic psychedelia 

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Washers - Drown (2019) PL

Washers to "czterej wielbiciele eklektycznego sprzężenia", pochodzą oni z Vancouver i grają jeden z najciekawszych tej jesieni psychodelicznych rocków. Fantazja i hałas, to właśnie w dużych ilościach znaleźć można na płycie Drown. 

Pierwsze o czym pomyślałem słuchając ich muzyki to jak bardzo głos wokalisty przypomina ten Harry'ego McVeigha z White Lies. Tylko że zamiast być akompaniowanym przez quasi-gotyckie rock, na płycie głośna i nieprzewidywalna psychodela. Zmieniające się tempo, nagłe chwile ciszy, zaraz potem solidne gitary - takie sa kompozycje Kanadyjczyków. Co ciekawe czasem, jak w Hecate Strait, muzyka zespołu przechodzi płynnie w pełnokrwisty post-rock i wtedy też daje radę. A im dalej w las tym bardziej eklektycznie się robi bo Manleash to miejscami darkwave, a miejscami post-hardcore i tak dalej, i tak dalej. Kilka fragmentów godnych uwagi.

Drown kosztuje tyle, ile chcesz.

Sprawdź: Hikkimori

Kraj: Kanada

Szufladka: eclectic psychedelia 

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