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Land of the Free? Pennywise |
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This is really the first I've heard of these guys and right from the opening salvo of "Time Marches On," an urgent reminder that yesterday and tomorrow are incompatibly thoughtless bedfellows, well how often do you think of a Punk band and equate them with their level of riff-ability? I mean, there's some serious guitar-riffing going on here, stepping far enough away from the usual three-chord hack, though always kept in clear sight, but Pennywise strikes me right off as not your average band of Punk Rockers sounding like their going through the motions, raising an issue or two, beating the Hell outta the instruments and done… what's next? In fact these guys have been doing this for a while and for "Land of the Free?" their seventh record, I'd dare say the image and intensity's remained in tact for one of the scene's more respectable stone throwers. "Fuck Authority," jumps right out, four songs in, even considering the magnitude of its predecessors, this is without a doubt the stand out here and the anthem for dissatisfied, disgraced and downtrodden amongst us who've met with refusal and resistance at every angle and are now ready to fire back-simply brilliant tune! So far "Land of the Free?" is about 80% mayhem and 20% melody and all the while some of the staunchest backing vocals you've ever threatened to cover your ears to for fear of furthering the nerve damage first brought on by their proletariat peer groups with a taste for chaos. Pennywise actually is amongst the more socially responsible stalwarts of this age of angst and as such, they cover the responsibility they first created and accepted admirably-"My God" decries organized religion not by branding or bashing but by exploring the inadequacies and irreparable sources that force-feed the pay to pray philosophy and "Who's On Your Side" and "It's Up To You," two of the quicker forays into self-discovery with the latter taking a similarly anthemic approach as "Fuck Authority" did earlier on-absolutely caustic… and very necessary. It'd be easy to point to Bad Religion for a quick reference here, basically on all counts-power, melody, speed and drama, tightly constructed veteran musicianship with mind-altering subject matter build on the very foundations Punk music was created for, to question our lives, ourselves and most of all, our leaders. Epitaph Records: http://www.epitaph.com/ Review by Vinnie Apicella
[va85@columbia.edu] |