Labels: Suburban White Trash
Review by: Alex Hannan
I have a feeling that this band’s work isn’t meant to be enjoyed sober, but unfortunately neither is it worth incurring a hangover over, so here we go:
There’s a distinct first on at the punx picnic vibe about this, and there’s no shame in that: I’d probably watch em if I found myself there. Could well be fun live. That’s not to say that this needs to be on a 7″ distributed on the other side of the Atlantic, cause I wouldn’t say it was export quality.
The sleeve features dancing and drinking punx in a fiery wasteland while a giant cop and a giant charged-haired skeleton loom overhead fighting to the death. The skeleton is also on fire. Mohawked ducks and aliens, bottles in hand, populate the lyric sheet, alongside a cock’n’balls emitting radioactive cum. The lyrics tell us that patriotism is blind obsession, that we should destroy the world. “Reality” ends with the choice lines “Reality / You think it’s a game / You’re insane / Who’s to blame”.
The five tracks here are all basic crusty drunkpunk. Joins between sections are often clunky (see “Time to die”), solos fairly cack handed, drum fills sometimes badly shoehorned in. “Blind obsession” uses the same guitar riff throughout verse and chorus, and a solo that mostly follows the riff melody. It feels low on effort. Basic songs work great in the hands of bands like LOS CRUDOS or more recently CRIMEN DE ESTADO – it feels as though they didn’t have time to fuck around with subtle songwriting because of the urgency of their lyrics (see “Crudo Soy”). There’s not enough here lyrically to make it mean anything, though. Some bands that can turn shit punk into gold with a bit of personality and the right attitude (see ESCROTO DE RATA, early GERMS etc): but ANAL WARHEAD aren’t one of them. Sorry folks!