ALBUM REVIEW: Dead Pioneers – Dead Pioneers
If you’re after some good honest punk music, look no further than DEAD PIONEERS. Fronted by Indigenous artist/activist Gregg Deal, their self-titled debut album is a DIY piece of eviscerating punk music that rarely takes its foot off the gas. Once you start this record, you won’t want it to stop. Clocking in at 22 minutes, with only one song clearing the three-minute mark, it’s over before you feel like it’s even started, covering a lot of ground within a short space of time. However, the best thing you can do is to start all over again and bask in all its glory.
Opening the record is the blistering Tired. Lasting just under two minutes, it takes aim at how modern day America came to be with thought-provoking lyrics about how the nation’s foundations were built on genocide and slavery. It’s a hard-hitting track lyrically and the instrumentals go just as hard with the bouncing riffs and thunderous drums creating something truly epic. We Were Punk First continues this style as it furiously drives through at 100mph in a way that feels clearly inspired by punk icons PENNYWISE – it’s short but it gets to the point. Punchline follows with a cavalcade of a more melody-based sound that details how General Custer was found dead at the battle of Little Bighorn with shit in his pants. It’s a funny little track which details how an awful human met his end with no dignity or heroics – you can easily think of a few people these days that could benefit from this.
In Bad Indian, Deal brings his humorous sarcastic wit to the forefront in a spoken work track that takes aim at how people see Native Americans and how they peddle particular stereotypes when meeting them and how he doesn’t hold up to those stereotypes himself, thus becoming a ‘Bad Indian’. It’s a track delivered in a way that the legendary Henry Rollins would be particularly proud of. Underneath all the talking is yet another sumptuous riff that brings a chaotic feel to the track. The Art Of Savagery is yet another spoken word piece, but this time no music features. It focuses on being questioned about being a Native American by a child, as a child hasn’t learnt about ignorance in a way that many others are. Yet that child still becomes afraid because of what they’ve been told a Native American is by those who are ignorant. It’s delivered once again in a droll humorous way but packs quite the emotional punch by its conclusion.
Rage once again picks up the pace and takes proceedings right back to up to 100mph. It’s one of the most punk sounding tracks on the record, it’s short and sweet and will have you yearning to hear it live as you throw yourself against countless others in a mosh pit. World Up My Ass follows suit as it deals with how everything going on in the world feels too much and how it feels like it’s chewing Deal up only to spit him out. It should be highly relatable for everyone listening and will have you shouting along with the lyrics in no time. Political Song is next on the record and is the one song that dares to be longer than three minutes. Once again the spoken word nature comes back into play and as Deal takes an eviscerating look at America itself. Even though it’s just over four minutes, it covers so much ground, from how minorities are constantly targeted and vilified to how the far right also have major sway in the country and chastise those for not having the same opinion. It’s a great moment on the record but leaves you feeling a little hollow when you realise just how dark and depressing the world has got.
As you get to the back part of the album, Doom Indian works as a cool penultimate track that guides the listener into the finale which is No One Owns Anything & Death Is Real which is a great way to finish the album. Full of huge riffs that will have you banging your head along, it brings the album full circle as the frustration of everything going on in the world comes back into fruition and sums up the nihilistic nature of the final track on the record.
DEAD PIONEERS may very well have produced one of the best punk albums of recent memory here. It’s up there with the likes of the new SOFT PLAY record in terms of how hard it goes and for that, it’s just a great time all round whilst listening. There isn’t a moment on this record where you feel bored or any of its messages feel out of place. It’s a classic punk record that helps you understand the struggles of minorities from their point of view. You just wish there was a little bit more of it as 22 minutes feels way too short for this. Its end results however are incredible and will have you going for repeated listens in absolutely no time. Everyone should get on this album right away.
Rating: 9/10
Dead Pioneers is out now via Hassle Records.
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