Moving to the front
Guess what I found when I logged on to the internet the other day?
I already mentioned the fact that Strike Anywhere’s new album, Iron Front is coming out October 6th. Good news. But last week with literally no forewarning the bad announced the release of a vinyl/digital teaser EP of the same name, to be released immediately!
Its a good snapshot of what’s to come: the A-side tracks are taken directly from the full-length with two more non-album tracks as B-sides. All are vintage Strike Anywhere, all highlighting their promise to reconnect with their speedy hardcore roots. Of course, the band’s sonic palette is only so wide, so the shifts are subtle at best.
Gang vocals permeate every track, the tempos are high and driving, the lyrics brimming with vitriol. But while Thomas Barnett talked about shedding some of the pop and folk elements underscoring previous album Dead FM, they’re not completely relegated to the scrap heap. There is still a bit of faint acoustic guitar strumming in “Orphan Age” and “Twilight’s Last Gleaming.” The vocal melody of “Hand of Glory” and the harmonies on “Twilight’s Last Gleaming” are straight out of the melodic pop handbook. Even the castaway songs on this EP stand solidly among the catchiest they’ve written.
Barnett is as vicious here as ever despite retaining a voice that is deft and malleable, crooning where its needed and raging more often than not. His worldview has not been made sunnier by the Hope Administration; he still sees America as a place where too may people either fall through the cracks or are pushed into them. “Failed State” envisions a country so bleak and run so deeply into the ground its citizens face insurmountable obstacles at every turn. Washington won’t be forgiven as long as Barnett still sees it as a city that would rather bail-out millionaires than feed its hungry. “Orphan Age” paints Americans as detainees in a contemptable country that can’t find a way past its bipartisan angst.
As a good teaser EP should its got me beyond stoked for the full album. Well done, Richmond.
Buy the EP in vinyl or digital format from Bridge 9’s store and keep an eye out for the full-length, out October 6th or something.
