The Swedish punk stalwarts return with their boldest record yet!
It’s curious that Europeans are doing such a fine job keeping the late 90s/early 00s Californian skate-punk sound alive. It wasn’t long ago that we reviewed German quartet Noopinion’s excellent sixth record, which boasts more than a few nods to the likes of Good Riddance and Strung Out, and now here are Rebuke with ‘Things One Shouldn’t Have To Say’, continuing in a similar vein.
That said, if there’s one particular band that comes to mind when listening to the likes of ‘Sharp Left Turn (The Trolley Problem)’ and ‘The People’s Technopiate Crisis’, it’s Propagandhi – particularly around their ‘Today’s Empires, Tomorrow’s Ashes’ heyday. Rebuke share the Canadian quartet’s fondness for short, breakneck-speed songs – packing a whopping eighteen tracks into only 35 minutes here – with fiercely intelligent, confrontational lyrics and no end of jaw-droppingly intense, spidery speed-metal riffing.
Oh, and this record does exactly what it says on the tin…well, in the title. It’s a concept record of sorts, apparently “explored through a parallel timeline where time travel became commercialised”, and – like all the best punk records – is clearly fuelled by a deep discontent about the state of the world as it actually is. Food for the brain and more than enough of an adrenaline jolt to whip any self-respecting pit into a maelstrom – it’s not an easy balance to strike, but Rebuke mostly manage it brilliantly.
Apparently, many of the songs were written as instrumentals before the lyrics were added, and if we were (very) hard pressed to identify any faults here, it’s that occasionally the guitar acrobatics elbow the vocals – and therefore the message – aside somewhat. It’s rare, though, and from the Bad Religion-esque backing vocals on ‘UNO Reverse Card’ to the sublime harmonies of ‘One E Four (Peasants’ Revolt)‘, most tracks boast that extra twist to make them stand out.
Final track ‘A Father’s Child’ lulls us into false complacency with its languid bass-led intro, before bursting into a riff-tastic musical sprint, and you get the impression that that was exactly what Rebuke intended. Well played, guys, and thank you for saying things that – ultimately – still needed to be said.
‘Things One Shouldn’t Have To Say’ is available on physical formats and all digital platforms from February 7th – order it HERE
- Things We Shouldn’t Have To Say
- Head & Tailspin
- UNO Reverse Card
- Brag Rhetorics
- Jordrew Peterfield
- Sharp Left Turn (The Trolley Problem)
- History III: Elective Dungarees
- The First Commercial Time Traveler
- Fully Automated Luxury Gay Space Communism
- touromaticsuk
- Mean Boys’ Stupid Boys’ Club
- The People’s Technopiate Crisis
- One E Four (Peasants’ Revolt)
- Plain Ice
- Aurora Borealis? At This Time Of Year?
- Octopus Hair
- Baby Bathwater
- A Father’s Child
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I spend my days teaching English to foreign students, and my evenings attending as many gigs as possible. Raised mainly on a diet of 90s third-wave punk, my tastes have grown to include just about anything from trad ska to thrash metal. The Ramones are my musical gods.
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