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Anti-Flag – American Fall (Spinefarm Records)

Genre: Punk Rock

After the election of Donald Trump and the chaos of the world today, America needed some hard truths and punk veterans Anti-Flag are the heroes to deliver it.

After a decade in the business the Pittsburg natives are too long in the tooth to shy away from telling it like it is, and anyway when you’ve shared the stage with some of the best political commentators in rock that’s going to rub off.

There has been lots to talk about since the release of their 1996 debut Die For The Government, perhaps now more than ever before – and that’s exactly what Anti-Flag are here to do.

Good Friend front man Adam Carroll talks music, touring and politics.

American Attraction might lure you in with it’s American High-Fi inspired head bobbing punky, poppy, hard rocky sound but it’s a complete bait-and-switch as The Criminals gets right to the nitty gritty of the matter.

‘These are the days that test your heart and soul’ yells vocalist Chris #2 and if the band are living their life by the words of Howard Zinn, who mused that dissent was the highest form of patriotism, they’re certainly doing the historian and activist proud.

The second song on American Fall is all about rejecting the government and the social ills within the United States, while follow-up While The Walls Falls has a ska-infused California Uber Alles ring to it as the band sing ‘if they come for you in the night, they’ll come for me in the morning.’

There are the usual teenage punk anthems to resisting authority with the chorus rousing Trouble Follows Me – although the album is at its best when Anti-Flag are angry at the world. Liar and Digital Blackout are prime examples of this and show the band at their take-no-shit best.

American Fall is an album that wears its heart on its sleeve and for that reason it must have taken some certain cajones to product – especially with Racist. As old-fashioned as proper, questioning, angry punk is – the world still needs it and Anti-Flag are living proof of that.

RUSHONROCK RATING: 8/10 American fall or Anti-Flag rise?