Review Summary: belter after belter after belter after....
‘The Tyranny of Will’ is Iron Reagan’s latest incendiary slab of hard-core punk. The Virginian bruisers have created an album of unstoppable fury and incredible musicianship. Face-melting solos and furious rhythm guitar complement angry vocals and demonic drumming to create a sound forged from the very bowels of Tartarus itself.
Musically the band offer frantic nods to the crusty goodness of Discharge and Aus Rotten. This is most apparent in their effective use of gang vocals; songs such as the delightful ‘Eyeball Gore’ and ‘I Won’t Go’ particularly exhibit its effectiveness in creating catchy, hook-laden choruses. Elsewhere the band are simply excellent at crafting short and sharp bangers such as ‘Patriotic Shock’ and the genius that is ‘Your Kids an Asshole’; a song that largely speaks for itself. Furthermore, the seductive groove of ‘Broken Bottles’ and closing anthem ‘Four More Years’ displays a knack for mid-pace belters that evolve gradually into down-tuned, fiendish boogies. Every song is incredible in its own distinctive way which is a hard feat considering that the record has twenty-four songs on it.
Lyrically, the album covers a lot of contemporary issues and is very politically focused. For example the song ‘Class Holes’, centrally focused on class inequality, begs the listener to ‘take a second before you wine and dine to watch the lower class die’. It is true that lyrically the band can appear juvenile and display an adolescent angst, yet underneath a greater insightfulness can be found. Moreover, aside from prosaically giving the government the middle finger for a lot of the record and delving into the Orwellian, other, more refreshing issues such as terrorism and phone culture are also covered respectively in ‘Nameless’ and ‘Exit the Game’, signifying a nice change from the norm.
‘The Tyranny of Will’ is a completely satisfying listen throughout; juxtaposing brutal instrumentals with thoughtful and often insightful lyrics on the state of modern culture and government.
