Review Summary: ctrl, alt, deleted – reset my memory!
There have been so many albums from my high school days that I’ve optimistically revisited in my thirties, only to end up nearly falling into a cringe-coma. You know the ones: stuff you played on repeat, thinking it was the soundtrack to your life, but now it just feels... well, like a reminder that your tastes were very underdeveloped back then. I’m talking about the cringey, overly dramatic stuff that felt huge and profound at the time but now struggles to even squeak by on nostalgia fumes. Billy Talent II isn’t one of those. It’s an album that still hits with the same urgency it did decades ago. There’s some real magic here, and I can’t deny that it’s one of those albums that still feels relevant, even if I’m not a teenager anymore… Possibly even moreso now.
I can still remember the first time I heard “Devil in a Midnight Mass” kick in. Right out the gates, that rapid-fire guitar riff from Ian D’Sa sets the tone for everything that follows. The intensity is immediate, and there’s this frantic energy that’s carried throughout the whole record that makes it feel alive, like they were trying to prove something. That energy is carried straight into “Red Flag,” and yeah, I know, it was basically everywhere. I’m not even gonna try to pretend it wasn’t way overplayed, because it definitely was. It was all over the radio, in every commercial, in multiple teen movies—***, I even recall it appearing in a game I was hooked on at the time: Burnout Revenge. But I don't think it deserves to be shoved into the category of “overplayed.” It still hits like it did the first time I heard it. It’s an anthem, simple as that, one that doesn’t get tired, even nearly 2 decades later.
And then there are tracks I enjoy even more today, like “Pins and Needles,” a song I didn’t fully appreciate back when the album first dropped. I remember thinking, “Meh, it’s slower, less punchy—not the same vibe as the others.” But in hindsight? Probably one of the best on the album. It’s that classic quiet(er) track on the album that creeps up on you (but my hyper-impatient, untreated ADHD-fueled younger self didn’t have the patience for it). It's got this rawness to it that I didn’t catch at first. Like the rest of the record, it’s angry, sure, but it’s also a bit more introspective. It’s not all about screaming into the void; there’s this sombre reflection behind the curtain.
Speaking of hidden gems—“Worker Bees” gets slept on. BIG TIME. That track feels like the album’s manifesto, positively dripping with this biting, restless energy and scathing lyrical commentary of the monotony and programmed way we exist in society. It’s a rallying cry for anyone who’s felt trapped, stuck in the same routine, just going through the motions. I used to just let it blast in the background without much thought, but now it feels personal—like it’s saying something about life, about the grind, about not wanting to just be another cog in the machine (something that resonates so much more the older I get). It’s almost kind of empowering in a weird way, in the same breath as it’s screaming in your face. And beyond all of that, it’s just a fkn great song that boasts one of the catchiest choruses they’ve written to date.
I could go on and on talking about everything this album gets right. “This Suffering” almost sounds like something pulled straight from a diary upon closer inspection, but it somehow doesn’t come off as whiny or self-pitying. The screams feel earned, not contrived, and serve as a reminder of why this was such a formative album for me. And then there’s “Navy Song,” which has this dark, melancholic undercurrent that sets it apart from everything else. It's not what you expect from a band known for its speed and aggression, but maybe that’s why it works so damn well, especially in the context of the album. There’s something that’s just so pure about this album. I mean, objectively speaking, some of its charm is no doubt afforded by nostalgia, but honestly, I think it’s more than that. This is the record where Billy Talent was at their peak. They were thirsty, they were pissed off, and they knew exactly how to channel it into something as poignant as it was fun. It’s that perfect mix of raw energy and real emotion that you rarely find in music. Sure, they’ve had a handful of really good tracks since, but none of it has felt like this. None of it has felt this urgent. It sounds like music made by people who actually gave a ***—not just about making an album, but making this album.
So yeah, tl;dr: Billy Talent II still holds up remarkably well. It’s a product of its time for sure, but it doesn’t feel dated in the same way a lot of other music from that era does. It’s still a perfect snapshot of a band firing on all cylinders, capturing the frustrations and angst of youth in a way that, even now, feels just as relevant as it did all those years ago. It's only a shame that they'd never come close to matching the energy and passion found within II or I in subsequent releases.
