It was only last December when I was extolling the pleasures of Anger Without Reason’s last album ‘Rage’ but as that saw the light of day in 2009 originally this isn’t quite as fast a follow up as I first thought. The band as I mentioned then are made up of three members of old British tour beasts Deadlock (not to be confused with the German band) and mix metallic elements with good old school Anarcho flavoured punk. This is a bit more of a compact album featuring just nine tracks and comprising of 30 minutes of music. However as with the last album it comes backed with a four track single to give you a bit more of the band, which is a nice touch. This is very much a self released and DIY effort that will be made available as download or sold at the bands live shows. I am sure they are probably open to people who are anti downloads approaching via their MySpace too but I guess any discs are going to be limited.
The material here has been played at shows and was apparently written and developed over 2009-10. We start with the title track bouncing in on a pogoing drum beat and chunky guitars before singer Fraser makes his presence known. I like the vocals, they are high in the mix and clear and clean although quite gnarly sounding. You can hear every word and get into the lyrics which are obviously important and politically charged. I am drawn more to the punk side of things this time around and the group sound like they could easily have been on a label like Mortarhate in the 80’s and have a feel that is akin to the likes of Conflict and Amebix about them. The flurrying guitars on ‘On Night Black Wings’ hit the mark and the song gallops off at mid-pace, full of swaggering attitude and with a bruising and somewhat yobbish mindset.
I get the idea that the band have played songs here a fair few times live but have simply gone into the studio and battered them out in one take, jamming them away. Things are rough around the edges but this fits in with the style nicely and one gets the impression that this is a band playing warts and all without worrying about polishing everything up and getting it perfect after the event. Sometimes like on song ‘Inside’ I felt that the vocals were not quite up to the task when it came to parts employing a more heavyset croon but like I said I admire the warts and all approach and on fully charged numbers such as ‘Older’ with fully throated indignant yells it’s quickly forgotten. Bouncy as feck and with cymbals crashing all over the shop ‘Shadows’ stands out at the half way mark and rather than blending into each other I find all the songs have something unique about them. ‘The Madness Inside’ even goes for a gloomy bit of acoustic guitar work reminiscent a little of Flux Of Pink Indians, another band I keep finding myself thinking of with this lot.
As with ‘Rage’ there is a lot to like here and it would be nice to see the band going up a level and getting some label interest and some higher profile gigs (probably a paradox considering the type of music they play) but they certainly deserve a bit more recognition and I will be keeping an eye on where they play live and hoping for future material from this lot.
http://www.myspace.com/angerwithoutreason1
