Political punk rock isn’t scarce in this day and age, with plenty of bands jumping on the fuck the government bandwagon. This cliché has been around ever since Anarchy in the UK, but as long as governments keep screwing up, it’ll always be relevant. Anti Flag understand the concept of this with their new album The People or the Gun.
The sound is a tad more aggressive than their previous works, the first track Sodom, Gomorrah, Washington D.C. is a balls out punk song with a lighter edge. Sounding similar to iconic bands such as Bad Religion and Millencollin. The use of two vocalists set the tone for the songs, with one vocalist making things a bit angrier, and the other using his nicer voice to sing some poppier songs which will make perfect singalongs. However both vocalists’ songs aren’t short of a good old “Woooaaaah.”
Quite a few styles are blended into this record, the song You’re Fired sounds like a good old hardcore song, reminiscent of bands like Minor Threat and Bad Brains. Yet the song This is the First Night could be a Dropkick Murphy’s/Flogging Molly acoustic anthem. This could give Anti Flag a disadvantage though, someone might hear one song and think they really dig it, buy the album and think the rest sucks.
Not short of a catchy hook, the album is definitely more appealing than some of the tripe that is being spewed out lately. At the same time however, its nothing to write home about. It’s not going to go down in history as the best album ever written, but if Anti Flag just intend to strengthen their audience and bring in a few new fans then they can certainly achieve that.
A lot of it might be quite cliché, even the structures of songs are pretty standard for heavier pop punk, most songs sound like they could be featured on a Tony Hawk’s soundtrack. But the music is generally well written and deep down there are a few nice, original riffs in the album. Anti Flag have definitely evolved as musicians, and the album is a good listen, but it won’t be at the top of my albums of 2009.
Jonathan Teggert