Hardly an unknown entity to yours truly, this Dutch Hardcore/ Punk act from Utrecht, as I've been honoured to review the band's two earlier releases (full-length The Verve Crusade and mini-album/ 10-inch Repent. Repeat, reviews for which were posted respectively on 18/04/2010 and 18/08/2012 – both are still available for your fact-finding needs in this website's “Archive” section). It would seem that the band has been about to give things up, being put at a crossroads where they were either gonna go for things all the way, or lay it all to rest. Luckily for us, the guys decided to persist, and this resulted in the band taking a trip across the Atlantic during the Summer of 2012...to Salem, MA based Godcity Studios, where they recorded the 12 songs of their new album with famed recording engineer/ producer Kurt Ballou.
Howl was written with the basic idea that the band members simply refuse to let themselves be governed by their fears and doubts, but even more strongly, it's against “their” view on what it means to grow up, and “their” inability to actively shape their lives...which has its virulent and devastating effects on all of us. It's about disassembling society with the little tools they have, and rebuilding it with the ones they create. The blame is pointed towards the ones to blame in the first song : crooked bankers and financiers...and the album goes on to recount all the reasons why we, young ones and all the others affected, still doubt to react in the revolutionary way which would at least be a beginning of putting things in the right direction. Aaahhh...it's an old wish really, and it's been uttered by so many in the past...proof of which comes with TRIH citing having used “...lines respectively stolen from Joanna Newsom, Allen Ginsberg, Morrissey, Dan Yemin, Q-Tip, Benjamin Buitenhuis & Ian McKaye” (quote from the booklet)! But, if anything, my thumbs go up to TRIH for a job well done, indeed! It's a pity the album's so short again (just under 21 minutes), but on the other hand it brings over the message quite incisively and to-the-point!
At (www.) thisroutineishell.com, you can check out videos to three of the new album's songs, and there's a link to Bandcamp allowing you to listen to the complete discography of the band, barring their debut split CD with Sandbox Rebellion. Check it out if you're into Hardcore Punk! Be certain to check it out, if you have any socio-political awareness at all!!! Meanwhile, I can only up the ante in my personal appreciation of this band, and add Howl to my personal list of “Best Albums Of 2013”!