Reviews

Despite one's feelings about the questionable movie reviews posted by the band (read: The Departed review/threat) or the decidedly extreme liberal stances the band takes (even for the punk scene), it is hard, if not impossible to deny the Propagandhi's importance to punk.

For the first time since How to Clean Everything, the Canadian punk band's debut with Fat Wreck Chords in 1993, Propagandhi decided to do without Fat Mike and released the latest effort, Supporting Caste, with its own label G7, and Smallman Records. After the release of Potemkin City Limits in 2005, the band also turned into a quartet, adding guitarist David Guillas.

But the changes make little difference on Supporting Caste. Propagandhi's sound is as solid as it has always been, if not more so. The sound is the usual melding of skate punk and heavy metal, with lyrics delivered just slow enough that the listener can decipher them without liners.

Which is great, because the success of Propagandhi's Supporting Caste comes in a two-pronged attack where both the music and the lyrics are equally as important and technically brilliant. Not only are Chris Hannah's lyrics socially relevant (which is quite the understatement), but they are written with a literary quality that allows them to stand alone, all without being trite or pretentious.

Luckily, they don't have to stand alone. They are backed by one of the best punk sounds likely to be heard this year or any. It starts with a churning riff on "Night Letters" that sounds like it could find itself on any good thrash metal album. Then the vocals kick in, and it still feels like it could easily pass at a Slayer show if the band was willing to gain some weight and grow out their hair.

The title track takes things in the other direction with a heavy skate punk magnum opus. Hannah provides the melody over more heavy guitars. The listener is assaulted by the power in every single word and chord, and it becomes impossible to ignore. And that's only two tracks into the 12-song Supporting Caste. It doesn't let up.

The most interesting track of the bunch has to be Human(e) Meat (The Flensing of Sandor Katz). It starts with the screams of a man and flensing -for those who are unaware is the term used to describe the removal of blubber from whales, in the strictest sense. The pro-vegan (or maybe anti-carnivorous) song talks about preparing a human for a meal, consoling the listener (and victim) with the argument that the procedures used were as humane as they are with animals. It is an intelligent satire on the level of Jonathan Swift's "Modest Proposal," used to dispel the notion that killing animals can ever be humane. That, or Propgandhi just wants to eat people. It can be hard to tell with these guys sometimes.