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Anti-Flag
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For Blood And Empire
RCA Records
Release: 3/21/2006
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Rated:
Review by:
Chas Hoppe
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Talk about getting a lot for your money. Anti-Flag's latest record, For Blood And Empire, is a lesson on how to transition to a major with class, but without giving an inch. Although the record is 39 minutes long - the perfect length for a political punk album - listeners should be prepared to spend some time with this record. The liner notes alone, which are filled with short essays and information on activism, could take a person quite a while to read.
But if the essays and lyrics are too much for your attention span, the album's packaging offers a much less cerebral activity. The paper sleeve the case comes in is actually a stencil kit, featuring a star made of broken guns and the slogan, "What are we going to do about the U.S.A.?" Very cool. Bands this attentive to how their product is presented usually have a good product to sell.
The album's beginning is pretty standard fare for both the band and the genre, but it serves well as a (re)introduction to the group. By the album's third track, "Emigre," the band has reached full fury, making the cliched lines, "First they came for the communists…" easy to dismiss. It's not that the intentions of those lines are bad, it's just that we've already heard this appeal in NOFX's Regaining Unconsciousness EP.
In fact, the record seems to favor hooky phrases over clarity, which is not necessarily a bad thing. It helps keep each song's message easy to digest, hopefully motivating the listener to learn more about these issues independently. There are exceptions of course. "Depleted Uranium is a War Crime" couldn't be more literal if it tried, even with a hooky climax, and the song is better off for it.
The album's biggest success is that while the music is inherently tied to the genre, they keep things fresh and avoid writing the same song twice. "Hymn for the Dead" features a trumpet solo that sounds right at home snuggled between buzzing guitars. "One Trillion Dollars" almost forces us to chuckle as we think of the absurdity of that number and what it has cost the world. And although "War Sucks, Let's Party!" doesn't quite live up to its name compared to the party System of a Down brought last year with "B.Y.O.B."
Overall, Anti-Flag's commitment to quality and integrity make this piece very enjoyable. For Blood And Empire would serve nicely as an introduction to the group for first-time listeners, though I suspect the band's current fan base won't be disappointed, either. |
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