If I’m being brutally honest, a lot of modern-day oi! not only leaves me cold musically, but also makes me feel faintly embarrassed due to the class cosplay element. This, though, totally hits the mark: interesting, expansive, furious and anthemic to the point where every song makes me want to holler my lungs out.
The power and catchiness of the songs takes me back to being bowled over by the first Criminal Damage LP, but there’s also a sense of scope and rule-breaking that suggests someone trying to stay true to a genre they love while kicking at the edges to see where there might be give.
I’ve been piss-takingly referring to the album as ‘post-oi!’ in a childish attempt to rile people who are older and wiser than me, but I’ve now convinced myself that there might be a weird sort of truth to my stupidity. I’m not saying they’re the Godspeed You! Black Emperor of oi! or anything, but there’s a stretch and flourish to proceedings (e.g. the hopeful little synth break that hits during ‘Dans La Douleur Et Les Larmes’) that at least hints at a point Blitz might have hit as they journeyed from ‘Voice Of A Generation’ to ‘Second Empire Justice’. There’s a directness to the songs that makes you feel like you can instantly engage and sing along, but at the same time there’s a sense that the album is just a bit… extra.
‘Prendre Le Pouvoir Par La Force’ definitely forgoes some of the raw, all out attack that has drawn so many back to the sounds of the early 80s, but it’s no less mighty for it. Because not only is the album charged with a sense of honesty and righteous, piss-boiling anger, but it also manages to channel it into some of the finest, fiercest songs you’ll hear all year.