MR_SaturN's Full Review: The Terror State [PA] by Anti-Flag
After a lengthy search for Anti-Flag’s latest album, a follow-up of 2002’s Mobilize, I obtained their latest stab at American politics and policies, entitled The Terror State. Before I start the actual review, I want to mention something about the album’s cover art, and the controversy behind it.
Anti-Flag’s website, http://www.anti-flag.com, reads “Exceptionally late in the production process of THE TERROR STATE, some of the biggest national music stores in the US informed Fat Wreck Chords that they would not carry our CD because of its artwork. We find this frustrating in that the image of the little girl whose childhood falls casualty to the current state of militarism in the US and much of the world, isn’t any more violent or disturbing than the world-wide epidemic of militarism which kills and oppresses countless human beings everyday – and yet we do not see these chains censoring media that promote militaristic ideas. That said, we made a calculated decision to forgo the artwork to get the more important, subversive message in our music to the ears of people who have not yet discovered that there is an alternative to purchasing music in a chain store, or do not have access to an indie store in their area.” So basically, some chain stores – and I can probably take a wild guess at which ones – say they won’t carry the new album with the “controversial” cover art of a little girl symbolizing the death of innocence due to the United States’ millenarian actions. But, in any case, if you’d like to know more, the entire statement can be found at http://www.anti-flag.com/terror/censorship/.
Anti-Flag’s new album, The Terror State, has already been heralded by some as their best album to date. Produced by Rage Against the Machine guitarist and activist Tom Morello, and with thirteen songs (fourteen if you include the limited edition bonus track), where almost all, if not every single one, is an attack on pretty much anything that the USA’s doing, it’s nothing new to both the band or the fans that listen to their music. You don’t buy an Anti-Flag album and not expect to hear them speaking ill of the United States. All the songs are reminiscent of Anti-Flag’s past endeavors, and while some may yawn and say, “Hey, Anti-Flag! We know that you guys don’t think too much of Dubya and his White House goons, so howsabout somethin’ new, huh?” But wait!
It sounds so good.
As with all albums by any band, there are some highs and some lows. However, the highs on this album are really high, and the lows are few and far between; almost unnoticeable to the avid Anti-Flag fan.
The first track, entitled Turncoat, is a typical Anti-Flag sing-along song that someone who’s seen AF recently might recognize from their setlist. Basically, it’s a song that may or may not be an attack on George W Bush (oh, who are we kidding; of course it is) where the chorus is just the words, “turncoat, killer, liar, thief!” over and over. A solid song to start off a solid album.
The Terror State’s third track, Post-War Breakout, has an interesting story behind it. Besides being one of the album’s better songs, apparently the granddaughter of Woody Guthrie, a pioneer in using music as a form of protest and rebellion, invited Anti-Flag to pull lyrics from some of his songs to use in this track.
Track four, Sold as Freedom, is a not-so-subtle sarcastic song about how the United States tends to use violence and war as a means to solve problems. With the lines “douse violent flames in gasoline / spite your foes with an all-out holocaust”, and “pour gasoline on the world inferno / burn it so hot that the world incinerates / when they’re all dead we’ll have no issues to resolve”, it makes the message pretty clear, and you’d have to be completely devoid of all sense of irony or sarcasm to miss it.
The seventh track is called You can Kill the Protester but You Can’t Kill the Protest. The title of the track makes it relatively clear what it’s about, and the song is chock-full of the background KILL, KILL!’s that you frequently hear in Anti-Flag tunes.
Death of a Nation, track eleven, is one of my favourite tracks. It’s about how our generation has been labeled as a waste of a generation, and how we’re seen as lazy lay-abouts, whilst all we needed was some direction or support, but instead received nothing but the opposite.
On a side note, I don’t really agree with this song’s message. While it is true that many people view today’s youth as nothing but bad news (and that’s putting it lightly), I think that one should be self-made. I mean, it’s absolutely true that one needs stability and support when growing up to be supportive and stable themselves, but I also believe that many people are useless blobs that don’t do anything, but that’s their own doing and if they wanted differently, they should peel themselves off the couch, turn off their Backyard Wrestling Tapes, and do something constructive.
Sorry about that little mini-rant, but sometimes I just have to indulge. I digress.
The second last track, Operation: Iraqi Liberation (O.I.L. is the clever acronym for this song, if you didn’t catch it) is a song about while “liberating” Iraq from Saddam’s tyrannical grip (which they successfully did, mark one point for the States), they hint at what the States were really after was the oil. Now this is an argument that is as old as time itself and as beaten as a dead horse, so I won’t even begin to debate this.
The final track, One People, One Struggle, is the general, run-of-the-mill “everyone unite and rebel against the man!” song. However, even though the song seems so assembly-line, it’s still a damned good track and a good way to end the album. It even has a catchy, chant-along “the people, united, will never be defeated!” to go along with it.
I realize that I omitted a few tracks, but I tend to focus on the songs that stand out from the rest. I’m not saying that these songs are bad – far from it – but, if I wrote out a description and my opinion about each song, it would be a lengthy and long-winded review indeed.
I’ve mentioned a few times throughout the review that this album seems more or less the same as pretty much everything else Anti-Flag has released, but don’t let that lull you into thinking that it’s washed out and boring. By all means, this is a great album. If you’re an Anti-Flag fan, you’d be a complete fool to not check this out. However, if you don’t like Anti-Flag, then don’t bother checking this out, because it’d just be more of what made you hate them in the first place.
Highlight of the album: Finding a highlight for The Terror State was tough. While I’m at a loss for a favourite song, I’d have to say that one of the best aspects of this album is the fact that I can listen to it and not want to skip any tracks in order to hear another.
Low point of the album: I hate it when bands are so damned serious about everything, and can’t take the time to just make a song that’s fun. Anti-Flag’s known to make a few songs that don’t mention the downfall of society – on Die for the Government they have She’s My Little Go-Go Dancer, and on Underground Network they have Spaz’s House Destruction Party. However, The Terror State seems to be devoid of any fun or happiness, and contains only anger and bitterness.
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