Unglued Reviews

Anti-Flag has never seemed like a band with aspirations to expand their sound beyond anything other than catchy, rabble-rousing three-chord melodic punk with generalised sloganeering lyrics – which is why it’s surprising to hear that on their eighth album, the Pittsburgh three-piece (together with producer Tony Visconti) have embraced orchestral instruments and other trappings of a band out to make an pretentious ‘artistic statement’ (as opposed to a political statement, which Anti-Flag have never shied away from). What’s more of a surprise is how well it works: opening track Good And Ready marries a militaristic punk song with a conclusion featuring timpani and a children’s choir – and it seems perfectly natural.

The ambitious embellishments – brass on We Are The Lost and Shadow Of The Dead (which also features strings, without turning into anything remotely like a ballad), harmonica on Go West, and ringing bells adding impact to several tracks including The Modern Rome Burning – don’t dilute the band’s knack for an anthemic chorus or twist their style into something unrecognisable. Instead, they simply work with what’s already there and enhance the experience. I suppose in theory that’s how such experiments should always work, but sadly in practice it’s not often that they do.

That said, the lyrics are still a weak spot, notably when they rhyme “America” with “sold out-erica”. And the album isn’t solely exploratory: Spit In The Face is a familiar full-throttle blast, Smartest Bomb is equally hard-hitting, and the title track is rousing, polished and infectious pop-punk. But I’d gladly trade them for the slow-burning Vices, with its hypnotic chanted chorus, or the truly surprising folk-punk hidden track, Tar And Sagebrush.

This album might disappoint those who just wanted another The Terror State or For Blood And Empire, but my notions of what Anti-Flag are capable of have been expanded for the better.

Owen Heitmann