[Punk] Rentokill - Antichorus

Clean, crisp production isn’t very punk rock, is it?

Oh well, who cares. If you’re a NOFX, Rancid or Against Me fan you probably own at least fifty albums that sound utterly identical to this one, but somehow this doesn’t matter when the album plays. Whether or not they have anything new to say is entirely beside the point. You’ll at least believe that they want to say it fast, and Antichorus, in the mold of the genre, has a quite sincere urgency to it.

The band hail from Austria, and I must admit I’d be quite interested to meet Lux (vocals/guitar) in person as you get almost no sense of his accent from the album. He leaps from faux Celtic to faux English to faux Californian without missing a beat, whichever the song demands. Might’ve been interesting to hear something with just a little hint of the bands own ethnicity, but who knows, Maybe Austrian just sounds awful in three-chord punk. I shouldn’t really object given how many genres are dominated by fake US accents, at least there is some variety here.

I’m too old and jaded to feel imbued with the revolutionary spirit every time a singer in a band shouts ‘No conformitaaaaaay!!!’ No matter how sincere he sounds but the message really can afford to take a backseat to the music in this case. He could be shouting ‘Lemonade! Lemonaaaaade!!!’ for all I care. If they really wanted to make a political statement then their lyrics would more decipherable, rather than the gruff growl that occasionally disintegrates into cracked screaming. After listening to the album several times through I have no more idea of their political manifesto than I did at the start. It fits the music and thats enough.

The drummer virtually never strays from the standard punk rock beat, that snare reliably clacking down every second beat throughout the whole album, and the bass isn’t much to write home about either. This is blatantly an album of short riffs, few chords and shouting, and doesn’t seem to be any worse off for it. True, the last eight tracks all meld into one if you try and listen to it all the way though—fifteen tracks in total—and the ska and acoustic guitar breaks are so short and pointless that they come across as little better than gimmicks but none of these things stops it being a decent little slice of punk rock. The fact that the pace of the album never drops for more than thirty seconds for the whole album probably works in its favour actually.

Probably much too commercial for todays hardcore punx, but still several times more interesting and energetic than the MCR & Good Charlotte crap flooding the charts, Rentokill are probably a good shout live, ‘Discontent Industry’ currently on their MySpace is not only the first, but also probably the best track on the album.

A UK tour is planned for July 2007.
www.rentokill.com
www.myspace.com/rentokill

¡Punk! · 25th April 2007, 9:30pm

They aren't half bad. A bit Good Riddance at times. But not bad.

MarkMono · 26th April 2007, 2:40am

If Pencilhead weren't funny...

monkey star · 26th April 2007, 12:57pm

There are a lot of good austrain bands, Antimanix for starters

¡Punk! · 26th April 2007, 4:45pm

After Antimaniax and, now, this lot. I'm really struggling.

Well.. apart from Falco obviously.

Dec · 26th April 2007, 4:56pm

Rammstein.

Nah, they're shite.

pete_drastic · 29th April 2007, 2:51pm

i found RENTOKILL to be quite good. sure it's nothing completely new, but i can't think of any band that is able to create something completely new & outstanding within this so called "punkrock genre". it's punkrock, and therefor it is pretty good and refreshing. the songs are divers and the energy is right there. you can clearly hear that they have everything well under control and are able to pull off a few really good songs as well. i can't see why you are so negative about it? Seriously, this is high paced, well played, harmonic, angry punk rock. Its good in the fact that it has all it is supposed to. Torn vocals, shouting harmonies, pulsing bass line, thrash guitars and that je ne cest quoi. Oh, and its well recorded. that's nothing bad actually. it still is gritty around the edges and not as slick as the latest FAT band.

i wouldn't pick on their accent that much either. they're no native speakers and just because you can call english you first language doesn't make them sound "lame" in the first place. i think there are way more bands out there that have extremely weird accents and lotsa spelling errors as well.

did you ever lookup the lyrics? i'm not so sure about that. because there's no line saying "no conformitaaaaaaay", but "a bright shining portrait of conformity". the lyrics do make sense and reading them will actually make you get their political agenda, which mostly deals with "mainstream media" on this specific record.

if you're not a fan of punkrock, i can totally understand that you're bothered by this kind of music, but i think that you're doing wrong by putting them that much down, like you did.

i don't know much about the Austrian scene, but it's obviously going very strong these days and you can check out a few good bands right here

http://myspace.com/astpai [Fond Of Life / JumpStart Records]
http://myspace.com/redlightsflash [AF Records / Householdname Records]
http://myspace.com/antimaniax [Householdname Records]
http://myspace.com/theplaguemass [Noise Appeal Records]
http://myspace.com/dimitrilovesconspiracy [Noise Appeal Records]
http://myspace.com/thecretinsbaby [Dambuster Records]
http://myspace.com/ephenrian [Wynona Records]
http://myspace.com/estatemusic [Record Of The Year Records]
http://myspace.com/hdnx
http://myspace.com/nothinggoldcanstay (ex- H-Street) [No Panic Records]
http://myspace.com/7ybl [Broken Heart Records]
http://myspace.com/rodriguezrock [relax-o-matic vibrator records/swindlebra-records]
http://myspace.com/staggers [Bachelor Rec. / Soundflat Rec. / Wohnzimmer Rec.]
http://myspace.com/beatbrats [PAM Records]
http://myspace.com/worldsbetweenus [Noise Appeal / Engineer Records]

MarkMono · 29th April 2007, 4:09pm

Quote:

Originally Posted by pete_drastic

i found RENTOKILL to be quite good. sure it's nothing completely new, but i can't think of any band that is able to create something completely new & outstanding within this so called "punkrock genre". it's punkrock, and therefor it is pretty good and refreshing. the songs are divers and the energy is right there. you can clearly hear that they have everything well under control and are able to pull off a few really good songs as well. i can't see why you are so negative about it? Seriously, this is high paced, well played, harmonic, angry punk rock. Its good in the fact that it has all it is supposed to. Torn vocals, shouting harmonies, pulsing bass line, thrash guitars and that je ne cest quoi. Oh, and its well recorded. that's nothing bad actually. it still is gritty around the edges and not as slick as the latest FAT band.

i wouldn't pick on their accent that much either. they're no native speakers and just because you can call english you first language doesn't make them sound "lame" in the first place. i think there are way more bands out there that have extremely weird accents and lotsa spelling errors as well.

did you ever lookup the lyrics? i'm not so sure about that. because there's no line saying "no conformitaaaaaaay", but "a bright shining portrait of conformity". the lyrics do make sense and reading them will actually make you get their political agenda, which mostly deals with "mainstream media" on this specific record.

if you're not a fan of punkrock, i can totally understand that you're bothered by this kind of music, but i think that you're doing wrong by putting them that much down, like you did.

i don't know much about the Austrian scene, but it's obviously going very strong these days and you can check out a few good bands right here

Eh, I got halfway through your paragraph nodding my head as you appeared to be agreeing with everything I said, then did a double-take when you accused me of being negative about the album.

I thought I gave quite a nice balance of the positive and negative aspects of the album and gave credit where credit was due.

Though you're right, there is no line on the album screaming 'No conformitaaaaay' (That was actually a Bonehouse song I think.) I was making the point that the music is strong enough that the lyrics can afford to be indecipherable at points.

To be honest, you seem like you've skim-read the review and taken a few bits out of context.

pete_drastic · 29th April 2007, 5:00pm

i'm pretty fine with your review actually, i just don't go along with some parts of it.

Quote:

To be honest, you seem like you've skim-read the review and taken a few bits out of context.

well, sure. i picked the parts where i disagree. same as you did with the "no conformity" bit. i'm still unsure if you took a look at the lyrics, because i had no problem getting their "political manifesto". but i can't blame you, i didn't get propagandhi's "manfiesto" at first either. i think the lyrics grow on you, same with the music.

i think that rentokill's a band with a hopefully bright future.
let's sit back and see how it evolves.

MarkMono · 29th April 2007, 5:16pm

I'll probably go along to see them, I'm intrigued enough.

I'm really not interested in the bands political stance, the only reason I mention it is that the release I was sent with the press copy of the album mentions the bands socio-political lyrics. Though the description was written by some random UK press-release company.

I imagine if they wanted reviewers to review their politics as well as their music they would've included a lyric sheet.

¡Punk! · 29th April 2007, 5:48pm

You do have a talent in making every compliment sound like an insult Mark

MarkMono · 29th April 2007, 6:02pm

Punk rock as they come.

pete_drastic · 29th April 2007, 10:12pm

i didn't know that the review copies don't have a lyrics sheet included. my fault. i'm always thinking that labels send out "proper" releases instead of just "promo copies". actually the CD comes along in a nice digipack and as far as i know, there's a vinyl version as well, in two different colors. record collectors, there you go!

here's the lyrics.
http://www.noreasonrecords.com/rento...ll_lyrics.html

i'm going to see them in brighton.

monkey star · 30th April 2007, 4:22pm

Plauge mass are awesome, they where the other band I couldnt rmember their name

pete_drastic · 8th May 2007, 7:09pm

RENTOKILL UK TOURDATES

Jul 15 Cowley Club, Brighton
Jul 16 tba., Burgess Hill
Jul 17 Market Tavern, Birmingham
Jul 18 tba.
Jul 19 Esquires, Bedford
Jul 20 The Shed, Leicester
Jul 21 Swan With Two Necks, Macclesfield
Jul 22 The Glebe, Stoke on Trent
Jul 23 Bowlers Club, Bridgend
Jul 24 Lark in the Park, London
Jul 25 The Nags Head, High Wycombe
Jul 26 The White Rabbit, Plymouth