As shitty as the political climate can be, the one silver lining you can rely on is that it’s going to inspire artists and musicians young and old to create some remarkable work. After a long slumber the boys in R.A.M.B.O. woke up to a world of alternative facts, conspiracy theories run amok, Boris Johnson and tales of “rigged” elections. All that kind of nonsense is the stuff that stimulates folks to create albums like Defy Extinction (Relapse Records).

This is a common phenomenon. For example, certain segments of the population love to wax poetically about the good old Ronnie Reagan years and how it was a new day for America. Well, the truth was that that jellybean-eating fuck ignored the AIDS crisis, inner cities rotted, crack cocaine spread like wildfire, but Ronnie was more interested in creating deficits and lining up the pockets of the wealthy. That’s how we end up with classics like John Carpenter’s They Live, Metallica’s …And Justice for All, and basically Dead Kennedys entire brilliant discography.

 

And much like those unsubtle examples, Defy Extinction is not disguising its intentions. ‘Ch@d’ rips out of the gate with lines like: “Why did you pick the side with incels? Lonely shitty dudes, fuck your frog; What is the appeal of sexist attitudes?” Someone has clearly been keeping a keen eye on online culture. And it’s not just the United States that’s in R.A.M.B.O.’s crosshairs as they also address Brazil’s authoritarian regime on ‘Cattle Tyrant’ with this opening salvo: “You destroy cerrado, You destroy the forest, Vai para o inferno, Bolsonaro.”

The message by the way is hard to ignore with producer Taylor Young giving Defy Extinction a sterling sound. Everything sounds clean and with a pulsing low-end throughout. Helps that the players were in top form as drummer Jared Shavelson is tight and, in the zone, particularly on a number like the MAGA bashing ‘Blizzard Brigade.’ If you’re an old school hardcore kid at heart, then you’re going to have a field day with the abundance of gang vocals throughout.

 

Instead of checking Twitter and being flooded with a deluge of garbage takes from the worst people in the world, why don’t you crank Defy Extinction, instead?

 

Buy the album here: https://orcd.co/rambo-defyextinction

8/10

HANS LOPEZ