UMUR "Dödskontrol" ("Death Control") is an EP release by Danish, Copenhagen based hardcore act Halshug. The EP was released through D-Takt & Råpunk Records in June 2013. It was originally released on 7" vinyl and was limited to 350 copies (100 of them on piss yellow vinyl). The band at this present time (this review was written in October 2015) offers the EP up for free on their Bandcamp profile. Halshug were formed in 2012 and released a demo that same year, but "Dödskontrol" is their first label release.

The music on the 4 track, 9:30 minutes long EP is pretty standard D-beat hardcore. The most distinct sounding feature is the Danish language lyrics, and it´s not even that obvious that they are singing in Danish because of the raw shouting delivery. The band is generally well playing and the four tracks are well written, powerful, and aggressive. "Pretty standard" is usually not a positive expression to use about music, but in this case it´s not meant as negative as it may sound. D-beat hardcore is (with a few exceptions) a stylistically rather limited genre, and the fans of the genre usually don´t want it any other way, so it´s not really fair to judge "Dödskontrol" using a parameter like originality, when Halshug obviously don´t aim at sounding 100% original (as if that was possible anyway...).

What you can judge the EP by is the raw delivery of the music, the well sounding production job, and how catchy the material is, and in those departments "Dödskontrol" score relatively high. It´s hard not to scream along to the choruses on "Skyd Eller Dø" ("Shoot or Die") or "Slå Ihjel" ("Kill"), and if that is true, I think Halshug is half way there. A 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.