Labels: Reason Records
Review by: Tony
Fast hardcore punk from a Canadian band that’s been around since 1997.
24 songs in a couple of fewer minutes. The CD cover’s got Jaws. The
logo’s got a hammer and sickle, but I think that’s just “for show”.
Lyrics are broadly “political” which is always a bonus. But forget
your Marx, this is protest politics of the rehearsal room. Here’s a
sample: “Fuck racism fuck Skrewdriver and fuck you too”. Got ya.
Musically it’s occasionally a bit melodic, but it is always fast
paced. The correct term is US HC, I think. At one point it sounded
like BLITZ, which makes sense as bands like them had a great influence
on that classic US HC sound. God, I can’t even remember the names of
the correct US HC bands to cite. Gorilla Biscuits comes to mind, but
that might be misleading. AK47 also sounds a bit like the expert
melodic-hardcore factories of Sweden and Japan. Again I am not sure
what bands to cite, but I hope you know what I mean”¦ But the qualifier
is that AK 47 is not as great as the Japanese burning spirit bands,
nor as whimsical as the faster Swedish trall-punk bands. Instead AK47
reminds me of something in that general direction. At the absolute
best I would say that AK 47 sound A BIT like the “raging Italian
hardcore” bands that had sounded the most like US HC bands. Yes, I am
thinking of Raw Power in particular (a band I love). But above all it
reminds me of Subhumans from Canada. It must have been many years
since I last had the urge to listen to this type of hardcore (except
for Raw Power), it was pleasant and enjoyable for that reason as
something made me think of the 1990s.