What’s In My Ear-Anti-Flag
Anti-Flag-The General Strike
Three years since their release, The People or the Gun in 2009, Anti-Flag releases their ninth studio album and sound more pissed off than ever. I was really pumped for this album as they were one of my first “favorite bands” and I always look forward to their releases.
Each album has some sort of theme relevant to what is going on in the world.The People or the Gun criticized US bailouts for banks that got us into the financial mess we are in right now.
The General Strike is, at least to me, the concept album for the occupy movements and protests that have been taking place this past year. It captures the anger and frustration of the middle working class in 12 simple tracks barely breaching 27 minutes making it their shortest album to date.
Now, on their music. The opening track,Controlled Opposition,has to be one of their shortest songs at 22 songs and it is a great opener. Short, fast, sweet, aggressive, and I want to punch someone.
The album has consistent catchy melodies and fucking awesome guitar riffs. With this being their second album they recorded at their home made studio, it still has a raw sound with very melodic guitars. The position as lead vocalists is a little bit more dominated by guitarist, Justin Sane, but Chris #2’s time on the mic is not wasted. With the third track,1915,which in my opinion is their best song since I first heard The Press Corpse,has such a great grabbing pre-chorus. By far, the best track on the album.
Now, I do have some gripes with this album. While each track has great hooks of their own and it has an intensity and aggression that can trace back to their earlier releases such as Die For the Government, it feels like another version of The People or the Gun, but faster.
Anti-Flag got a ton of shit when they signed a two record deal with RCA which produced the releases of For Blood and Empire and The Bright Lights of America.I’m a huge fan of these albums. Mainly because it stepped over some boundaries and broke new ground for them. They had string quartets, a child choir, and trumpets in these albums and it was something fresh. Each album is unique in its own way and I appreciate that just by itself.
I don’t want this band to be like a Bad Religion and just release re hashes of their previous albums. With that being said, The General Strike is great and stands out in its own way, but doesn’t really bring anything new to the table. It won’t disappoint fans and I personally won’t stop listening to it for this next week.
Rating: 3.9/5 ears
Other Eargasms
Authority Zero-Andiamo 4/5 ears
The Black Pacific-The Black Pacific 3/5 ears
The Flatliners- The Great Awake 5/5 ears
