Patareni

Patareni are a hardcore punk, noise and grindcore band from Zagreb, formed at the end of 1983, although its members had been playing raw hardcore punk without a name since 1982. Because they started so early, they are counted among the very first grindcore bands anywhere. They took their name from the Patarenes, a religious movement of the eleventh century. Their founder, Davor Kodžoman, known as Hadžo, is the band's only permanent member; the line-up has changed often, and the band has played few concerts.

In the mid-1980s Patareni sped their songs up to the limit and added unintelligible, brutal vocals, moving from anarcho-punk toward the even more basic sound of grindcore, a style they helped to create. Their lyrics are humorous, absurd and childishly crude. Asked in a rare television interview what Patareni sing about, Kodžoman answered: mostly about love, about flowers, about nature, about young botanists and about roof tiles falling off roofs. Among their cult songs are "Sekunda" and "Dvije sekunde", whose titles give their length.

The band sent its demos abroad itself, and its first released track appeared on the French compilation LP 1984 The Third. Through the tape-trading underground of fanzines and self-released recordings they won a cult following abroad, while at home their concerts were often interrupted or banned because of their absurdly morbid music. Between 1984 and 1989 they played fewer than ten times, among them Subotica in 1985 and Ljubljana and Belgrade in 1986, and the Slovenian label FV Music put their songs on a cassette compilation and a video compilation.

Their long discography has come out only on independent labels: LPs, CDs and many split singles with bands such as Extreme Noise Terror, Agathocles and Cripple Bastards. Musicians at home and abroad have covered their songs, a tribute LP was released in their honour in 1994, and in 2009 the magazine Terrorizer listed their Back to the Roots among the 20 essential European grindcore albums. This playlist holds an album of theirs released in 2002.