The United Sons Of Toil

When The Revolution Comes, Everything Will Be Beautiful

Written by: PP on 21/08/2011 18:50:22

There are bands that play music, and then there are bands like The United Sons Of Toil, who believe music should be an immersive experience where your ideology and understanding of self meets somewhere halfway between chaotic off-tune melodies and noisy crescendos that break into manic screaming without warning. "When The Revolution Comes, Everything Will Be Beautiful" is an album that tells the story of an oppressed and hopeless people who resort to violence to seize power, but eventually become the oppressors themselves. It is accompanied by a lengthy manifesto about what the band believes in (mostly leftist rabble about politics, careerism in music industry, how its modern incarnation sucks etc), but also lengthy liner notes to explain what the lyrics mean in each song, giving extensive political background and analysis in the process. It's a really interesting read if you're into that kind of stuff, but even if you aren't, the band's complex musical offering is enough to overwhelm most listeners. Hence, the lengthy delay in the review of this album, it really is a beast that has to be attacked from a slightly different angle than your regular album.

On paper, the band's description of feedback-oriented noise rock that draws its raw passion from post-punk, noise rock and math rock combined, does not necessarily sound that impressive. Indeed, many bands have dirtyed their hands in this trade, not least the recently reviewed Waxeater, but few do it as convincingly and with as crystal clear passion and belief in their own ideology as The United Sons Of Toil do throughout this record. They present their angular and at times unmelodic amalgamation of genres with a similar urgency as the early Refused records, featuring similar attitudes and a constant feeling of unquenchable rage regarding today's world and the way things are run. This is audible not just in the slow build ups that break off into spastic screaming parts, but also in the atmospheric sessions where the bass guitar has an ominous sound and the screeching guitars both play an equally important part in embedding a garage-ish, pissed off punk culture to the whole album.

Sometimes, that it means The United Sons Of Toil need six minutes to express that noise-fuelled anger, but it can also mean shorter and more focused cuts that assault the listener through cacophonous dual vocal jolts of ferocious smoky screaming injected into the quirky soundscapes. On the whole, however, the album could certainly benefit from a songwriting approach that's less about piercing eardrums through high-pitch feedback noises and a bit more about writing semi-catchy, effect-laden riffs like those on "Sword Of Damocles" if they ever want to have an impact in the same way as Refused did on a great number of people. Currently, "When The Revolution Comes"...is a record you have to appreciate for its immersive music/ideology approach, but one that still leaves the listener looking for more than just a few moments which to latch onto, which to use as building blocks to release that inner leftist fury they have brewing inside of them.

Download: Alcoholism In The Former Soviet Republics
For the fans of: Waxeater, Young Widows, Refused, Neurosis
Listen: Official Site

Release date 05.03.2011
Phatry Records

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