Album Review: Slaves – Acts Of Fear And Love

It’s a terrible admission to make but prior to this review Slaves had somehow managed to stay under my radar, I missed them when they headlined the Rebellion Festival, because that’s what tends to happen during the chaos of that weekend, but now I’m finally getting up to speed with one of the bands from the UK punk scene who have made the shift from independent releases, the duo’s early singles were released on Boss Tuneage and Fonthill Records, to signing to a major, in the shape of Virgin/EMI Records, for the release of their 2015 debut album.

Slaves released their long awaited third full length last month, an album that had a much longer wait than it’s predecessors, 2015’s Are You Satisfied and 2016’s Take Control, but it seems it’s been worth the wait as the opening track, The Lives They Wish They Had, marks a promising start with it’s dirty blues riff and punk attitude that kicks into hardcore fury for the track’s finale. The fuzzy riffs score themselves into your mind with each track managing to be a unique hybrid of styles, think of a sound that has it’s roots in the likes of Conflict and Wonk Unit but is delivered in a haze of bluesy garage fuzz and with a very slight pop sensibility, the fact that this is done without sacrificing anything politically or musically just makes Acts Of Fear And Love all the more impressive.

History is littered with bands who signed to major labels and have seen their original sound steadily smoothed out and lost, but Slaves have managed to cross the bridge between maintaining punk credibility and balancing it with a degree of mainstream appeal, to me Acts Of Fear And Love has a sound that has managed to cross the divide between the sheen of indie and britpop, the rage of punk and hardcore and the primitive origins of blues and garage fuzz, as such it’s an album has a unique cross genre appeal. Whilst I suspect that I’m largely preaching to the converted, as I presume that everyone else is already converted to Slaves, but if you managed to miss out on Slaves before now Acts Of Fear And Love is a damn fine place to start.

Acts Of Fear And Love is now available on vinyl, CD, cassette and digital formats here

Slaves website can be found here