Apocalypse Pending is the latest album by the Chicago based collective The Joy Thieves, who this time around have created the album by sampling the works of the collectives 80 odd members and splicing and editing it all together to make a deeply anti-fascist screed against the current world dis-order, The Joy Thieves main musical magicians are Dan Milligan, DJ Darryl Hell, Chris Connelly, Jeff Harris, Derek Christopher, Dee J Nelson, Jane Jensen, James Scott, Steven Archer. Apocalypse Pending was produced, engineered & mixed by Joy Thieves Productions at Populist Recording + Mastering, Wheaton, IL Mastered by James Scott at Populist Recording + Mastering, Additional production by Derek Christopher at Penfield Studios, Mark Pistel at Room 5 Studios, Jeff Harris at JH Studios, Steven Archer at House of Wolves, Dee J Nelson at DJN Music Studio, Jane Jensen at Autozen Music, and DJ Darryl Hell at HellLab Studios.
Apocalypse Pending opens sounding like the bastard offspring of The Disposable Heroes Of Hiphoprisy and KFMD, hip hop aesthetics and crunching industrial guitars, it bleeds into No Anchor along with Chris Connolly's haunted twisted vocals, attacking the idiots cheer leading for Apocalypse, the game has been revealed, if you can't see who the guilty are you have not been paying attention.
Cowards Way attacks the cowards who would never actually go and fight a war but are only too happy to send others to do the killing and destroying for them, rather than actually trying to make the world a better more peaceful place, where we can feed, house and clothe everyone, the evil idiots who think they can create earthquakes to get there way.
I'll Be Your Hammer has super heavy industrial synths and guitars, while Chris makes plain just how little he cares for all the fascist crap he hears, trying to persuade us all to become like Thors hammer, while really we need to rise up and stop all the hatred, bringing back some love and sanity to the world, while the scratching leads into the central guitar solo and the distress of our times is clear, we need to be stronger.
The Wrong End Of Your Rifle trying to avoid those bullets, can you impose your will on us all, or do we all have to put our hands up and have a heart attack while trying to fend off the evil ones who claim to rule over us, breathy vocals are a nice counterpoint to Chris' angry bitter raps.
Pariah is the chant that should greet every member of the current US administration wherever they go, it is also what should be chanted at the evil Ice Agents invading previously peaceful communities, the lyrics make clear what a hell hole is being created by these Vermin and Pariahs and narcissistic power-hungry maniacs, who are always Ready/Willing to sacrifice others less fortunate than them.
Just A Conversation that could cause an additional homicide, a frightening thought, but we live in frightening times, this dark dystopia gets darker every day, it's time to fight against the powers that be, let's all stop the fascists and make a fairer world for all, stop them lying to our faces the whole time. Grinding industrial guitars obliterating their fascist arguments.
Knife Fight Nihilism is a call for that dead man to have his say, to make the evil ones pay, who will be our saviour, listen to the real saints like Gil Scot Heron. Ambush Vinez lists several cities destroyed by fascist idiocy and the places we need to defend from the evil doers who would car jack us on the Silk Road.
Evidence Dump what will you find while rapping and digging ever deeper to find the evidence of complicity in mass murder and stealing more than you could ever need, watch out for blood on your scanner when you copy those damning documents for that Evidence Drop that will blow things wide open, if you can get it past the gatekeepers and out into the world.
The Cleaner Came the sort who cleans up after dirty deeds, gets rid of the evidence, so much for the evidence, they will get rid of everything, you would never know this was the scene of the crime and like Iggy always insists, the real criminals are out their beyond the law, they always have the Cleaner on their side.
The Album closes with Hoax never believe the reasons they give for the dark murderous deeds they order, all of the things they accuse others of, are always the crimes they commit themselves, the fascist pigs in charge, when the battering ram industrial synths slow down, it becomes eerily scary, the worry of cyanide solutions and other exit strategies investigated through the nasty widdly guitar solo.
Find out more at https://thejoythieves.bandcamp.com/album/apocalypse-pending https://thejoythieves.com/ https://vm.group/apocalypse-pending-tt6-6 https://linktr.ee/thejoythieves
