Review:

on 2009-09-18 no_death Said:

It's difficult to write about this album and not make it sound like a love-in but truly this is such a finely tuned hardcore album it's hard not to. Existing for only a short time this high watermark album made Million Dead a modern day Refused to me. I wasn't old enough to appreciate Refused during their short existence but I'd had their albums on constantly since discovering them. So in 2003 when this album came along it was exactly what I'd been waiting for- a violent revolutionary band of my own.
With opener Pornography for Cowards, in which sexual attitudes and perceived sexism are lambasted, they provided that visceral musical punch I needed at that age. What was missed, and what would take me a while to find out, was beneath the sonic destruction were some of the smartest lyrics around. When lead singer Frank Turner left Million Dead he proved his mettle as a songwriter in a folk capacity, and gained an instant audience as you could distinguish his barbed lyrics without straining an ear. But for the best example of his work in Million Dead strain away to Charlie and the Propaganda Myth Machine, a song in which Turner asks what would happen if children weren't over medicated by TV and sweet foodstuffs- "Willy Wonka was a capitalist confidence trickster, a poster boy for neo-liberalism" he spits. The lyrics are the product of youthful rebellious ideas and if they were delivered by anyone older the dreams would seem too idealistic. It's telling that he would later reference his loss of belief in these ideals with the title track from album Love, Ire and Song.
This album, like The Sound of Punk to Come, is a snapshot of a time when you could believe truly in an idea without the hindsight and cynicism that comes with age. It is also a violent, crashing and thoughtful musical journey that still sounds as exciting today as 2003. And with the addition of first E.P. I Gave My Eyes to Stevie Wonder, it's a long overdue re-issue of one of the best rock albums to come out of the UK in the early 2000's.

Rating: 9/10