Critikill
'Brick Wall'
Self Financed
The DIY aesthetics may remain but any other resemblance to the rabid, mainstream-raping weaponry of Malcolm McLarens cultural ‘hype-into-art’ revolution of the 70’s has been lost in punk’s generational adjustments. His gifted nous for marketable notoriety will always be the exact point from where punk’s wide-eyed liberators were kick-started but it’s continuing growth as a powerful musical force is down to bands just like this. Their recent album ‘ Brick Wall’ is a flawless preservation of that culture. Gritty street punk anthems with back-biting lyrical venom and steel-edged vitriol stretched across the dissident battlefields and glorious shitholes of genuine brawlers Opening track ‘Brick Wall’ begins with probing guitar and stop/start build up before opening up into a frenzied guitar/drums noise symphony complete with muscular lead vocal delivery and catchy chant-along ‘wooahhhhh’ harmonies. The more immediate energy of songs like the speed-ball paced ‘Death By Innocence’ and hard-nosed ‘Clenched Fist’ with it’s brilliant change of direction midway for the volleying ‘fuck you, fuck you’ before re-adjusting the pace for its guttural ending are ferociously sharp examples of punk’s modern day sounds. The desolation in heartache brings the stand-out brilliance of stirring lament ‘A Call To The Gathering’, the patriotically drenched tribute begins with the atmospheric sound of solitary bagpipes before bleeding into a commanding guitar/lead vocal of blistering emotion before grinding to a halt with the same solitary bagpipe it began with. Made by punk rock’s natural craftsmen rather than forced into guessed shapes at the hands of inexperienced hammers, Critikill have made an aggressively brilliant record that’s as composed as it is lawless. An innocently timeless piece of work…that carries a big stick.
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