At Peace is Propagandhi's first album since 2017's Victory Lap, the album was written and recorded in Winnipeg before either the US or Canadian elections and Trump's deranged wish to incorporate Greenland and Canada into the USA. The band are Chris Hannah, Jord Samolesky, Todd Kowalsky and Sulynn Hago. The album was recorded by Jesus H Chris and John Paul Peters at Private Ear Recording and Oceanside Mountainview studios and mixed and mastered by Jason Livermore at Blasting Room Studios in Colorado.
The album opens with Guiding Light that comes in slowly, building the heavy riffs and drums, portents of what's to come, they seek to guide us towards a different future, post catharsis, after the reckoning, when all your false thinking has been cleansed.
At Peace takes aims at all who prostrate themselves before the might of armies and senseless slaughter, wherever it may take place, the rampaging guitars, blast core drumming and a need to try to find a little light, no matter how dark things have become, while trying to stop marauding invaders from destroying the country you live in, while the video looks at the despicable Camp Delta in Guantanamo Bay.
Cat Guy is found in a lake, it's a bit more stripped back, making me expect an onslaught to come. No Longer Young is them reflecting on how all the things they fought for when they were young, have failed to come to pass and who is going to fight the good fight, from the current younger generation, the speed metal guitars help mask the crushing realisation, of how far things have gone wrong in recent times.
Rented P.A. is for those making the choice between love and hate, to choose love, no matter how angry the guitars feel, they are being directed to do good not evil. The shock of all the missteps they see all around them, all the bile they heard being spoken from that Rented P.A. they want you to go back and listen to the messages embedded in the band's early albums.
Stargazing is not about the bands love of the Kardashians and Beyonce et al, but more cautioning against accepting reality tv at face value, beware of the false prophets.
God Of Avarice is a screed against anyone who has millions more than they could ever need, yet still tries desperately to get more, while immiserating the poor and struggling working classes, anger at the immense greed of the super wealthy.
Prismatic Spray (The Tinder Date) one of those dates accompanied by raging guitars and questions of why you are on a date with this person, who you really have nothing in common with, an intellectual mismatch, let alone the lack of sexual desire, how desperate are you to not be alone tonight.
Benito's Earlier Work takes a historical look at how Il Duce's views and behaviour changed as he gained more power, how this might inform how we look at Chumps rise to power, even though Chump has none of the class or menace that Mussolini did, while being the evil bastard he was.
Vampires Are Real takes a low-slung bass riff and guitar interjections that speed up, while they let us know who the real bloodsucking vampires are.
Fire Season is something that has become ever more real, this is more down and dirty than any episode of Fire Country could ever be. They try to avoid suffocating from all the black smoke, obliterating the previously clean air, still idiots claim climate change isn't real, how can they change the conversation and make sure any rebuilding from the ashes is done with sensible fire breaks etc.
Day By Day sadly things have got worse, the tyrants become more powerful and the forces of good weaker and more dispirited, sadly they have no easy solutions, other than organising, protesting and doing everything they can to show a better way is possible, just make sure you never praise a tyrant.
The album closes with Something Needs To Die But Maybe It's Not You could it be predator capitalism, or the billionaire rampagers, how do we crush the forces crushing us, they want us all to join them in fighting against everything currently going wrong.
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