Angry Itch – Angry Itch

I’ll have to be very honest here, when I was given this album, played it, then thought about how can you describe this bands music, it was far too easy to come up with something that may and should have been said so many times before. Yes, like an angry itch this music bites at you, nags at the brain, has you writhing about like a demented Tasmanian Devil trying your best to catch up with its incessant jumping around, a musical and vocal assault on your conscience that strives to make you never forget what is being said or played, and succeeds!.  Or it could just be a band named after a certain brand of leather boots….

This self titled album is the bands second and comes eight years after the first, ‘Chimpanzee’ which was a triumph of pop punk done in an angry Midlands style.  This is a much less pop assault on the senses, it still finds plenty of time to entertain and give you the sing-a-long, but it does feel like the band have wanted to concentrate on what matters just as much now as it did then, the shit state of the world and the frustrations that go along with it.  From the first “fuck that frightened the shit out of me” words of ‘The Gammon Riots’, and the lyric “never trust the lie on the side of a bus”  you’re left in no doubt that this is gonna be a ride worth taking.

There are moments in this album like in ‘Pay To Play’ that Oi has a place, but then as you amble through (more of a stomp actually) the tracks one by one, the sound that seems to define the band more in the likes of ‘Its The Children Who Are Wrong’, ‘Welcome To The Party’, ‘Echo Chamber’, or ‘Nice Guy’ would probably be Pennywise, Green Day or The Uk Subs.  This isn’t an album that rests on the bands laurels, it has moved forward, it’s as self aware as you could ever ask an album to be, it deals with all the subjects that affect us all and brings the truth to the masses.  

I have to give ‘Its Not Right’ the worthy title of stand out track, no words can accurately describe how this song says so much by saying nothing more than the truth.

If you want an album that is of our time, an album that combines all the elements of Punk that matter, words that hurt and music that asserts, Angry Itch is for you.

The album is out now and can be acquired only from the band themselves, here’s a list all of their social places where you’ll be fully rewarded. Facebook Website Youtube