Propagandhi - Supporting Caste (Hassle)
3/5
By: Richard Brant
It's progressive, punchy, political - it's Propagandhi's fifth album. Supporting Caste is a further development in Propagandhi's over 20 year history, moving on from the in your face rapid punk pop of their early days to a more progressive hard core thrash style that still maintains entirely listenable melodies and structure.
A hard hitting thrashing bass and circulating guitar melody opens 'Night Matters' but soon enough a barrage of vocals with intense drums kicks in as an interlude to a more melodic period. A repeat performance ensues ending in a machine gun like drum finale. This is an immediate example of the maintained structure of songs throughout this album which although contain progressive elements still maintain a (hard)core flow from beginning to end.
Songs are littered with political pops, moral stances on Propagandhis' view of societal wrongs and in some cases more personal attacks on people such as Ron MacLean and Sandor Katz. After a raging start the most mass friendly of the songs being 'Dear Coaches Corner' attacks MacLean, who as I understand is an ice hockey presenter in Canada whose show seems to without warning switch to Canadian soldier obituaries (from Afghanistan) half way through turning in to some sort of war propaganda... Of course with Propagandhi's left wing background and love of ice hockey this obviously doesn't sit too well with them. The stripped out sections with soft percussion, along with solitary guitar and vocals works very well here.
The other 'Human(E) Meat (The Flensing of Sander Katz)' has an attention grabbing, skin crawling start where the sound effects of someone getting sliced up with blood curdling screams and all. The song itself is a melodic punk sounding three minute bash through, targeting the "humane" killing of animals (yes, the band are vegans, and not massive fans of killing in general), but they seem to focus their parody on killing Sandor Katz, which is a bit lost on me as from what I gather he's just some famous veggie over the pond. Never the less the parody and humour in lyrics is amusing enough. I guess.
Tracks like 'Supporting Caste', a yell at the way the majority serve a few, are high bpm vents of emotion, with small well timed breathers in order to flare once more towards the end. 'Tertium Non Datur', as well as, 'Without Love', 'Funeral Procession', 'Potemkin City Limits' (a held back relic from the previous album) and 'Last Will and Testament' all seem to hold this form underneath their evolving manic drum beats and melodies.
The pinnacle of this emotive unleash is shown in the blast that is 'This Is Your Life', a 100mph one minute blasting of the war in Iraq and Afghanistan casting the roots back on the inanity of people in modern day life with harsh vocals. A similar style of "short but loud" is shown in 'Incalculable Effects'. And, well, most of the record, truth told.
But finally a more light hearted side is shown in 'The Banger's Embrace', as well as the bonus track, a cover of fellow Canadians Black Widows' 'Come to the Sabbat'. The former is flash of nostalgia in both lyrics talking of days gone by and in tune as the track takes the form of college style punk rock. The latter is a brilliant, bizarre track with a slow simple bass line and synth hook; it is quite crazed but enjoyable.
The songs are politically and socially charged, and their messages haven't necessarily changed much, so if you've followed them up to now expect more of the same there. You will however find that musically they have evolved somewhat, birthing some fantastically enjoyable tracks. It's possible that even if you aren't particularly fond of their political posturing, which tends to be a bit strong, there'll be something here for you all the same.
Artists in this article: Propagandhi
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