The Effort – Wartime Citizens

From the packaging alone – a well done, illustration-heavy montage of wartime efforts fleshed out by the ridiculously talented Ryan Eyestone – I figured this was going to be at least a good record. Thoughtful design goes a long way in my book, and I had a good feeling about this band.

Man. Honestly? I didn’t have a fucking clue.

To be more clear: Wartime Citizens is one of the best hardcore records I’ve heard in at least a few years. I probably haven’t been as floored by a hardcore record since Modern Life Is War’s Witness LP, and for me that’s saying something. Wartime Citizens is an ambitious, fevered, awesomely pissed-off album full of a pointed and well-articulated rage. The band identifies themselves as both vegan and straight edge in the liner notes but there’s absolutely none of the lyrical trappings frequently synonymous with both (thinly veiled thuggery and a hamfisted moral superiority) to be found in the record.

Musically, this is a complex album, reminding me of a more nimble version of bands like Capital or Have Heart – fully capable, nuanced, and fucking mean. Imagine if bands like Killing The Dream or Dead Hearts relied less on a sense of epic buildup and more on creating a variety of sounds, this crazy amalgamation of current hardcore filtered through 90s screamo that works to dizzying effect. The shit, frankly, slays. The vocalist falls somewhere between the throaty yowl of Comadre and the swagger of the dude from Lewd Acts. And lyrically, The Effort is throwing out some of the best lines I’ve read in a quite a while, from any punk band, regardless of genre. This is what I’m talking about – rather than relying on easy, reliable topics of “brotherhood” or the inevitable ode to being stabbed in the back, The Effort’s too busy decrying consumerism, child abuse, capitalism, xenophobia and more, and doing it with Propagandhi’s unflinching wordiness.

All in all, Wartime Citizens reminds me more and more of Witness. Both records are epic as shit and nearly seamless in their execution. Both are aesthetically nearly perfect. Both contain whip-smart and frequently stunning lyrics. If The Effort isn’t quite as decipherable in the lyric department and feature a few too many gang vocals, well, consider it a side effect of the genre. This is hardcore, after all.

All told, Wartime Citizens is a snarling workhorse of a record, and it’s rad to see a band inject personal politics in such a smart and inclusive way. Anyone interested in modern hardcore should seek this out. This is a great, great record.