Against The Stream on As Ice Hardcore E-zine
Smash The Statues - Against The Stream
Angry Youth Records
We try to seek our course despite the fact that we’re obstructed by this world.
So where do we go from here? sings singer Tom from Smash the Statues in Do you
want a personality to match that uniform?, the first song on this record.
If this question is directed toward the musical course that Smash the Statues
will take on the rest of the songs on this record, the answer is obvious. They
play punkrock that is basically reminiscent of Rise Against. Especially the
older Rise Against songs. Of course, that’s not all. Sometimes other
punkrockbands or hardcorebands- like Adhesive or Strike Anywhere - come to mind.
If the question asked is directed towards the lyrical content of this record,
however, Rise Against is also the first reference that I have, with a mixture of
personal and political lyrics. That is pretty cool to me, to see a fairly new
Dutch band that is not afraid to address socio-political issues in their lyrics.
Smash the Statues directs songs towards issues like globalization, organised
religion, rape, war and more. But they also have some more personal lyrics. I
really appreciate the fact that they aren’t afraid to express an opinion in
their lyrics. Unfortunately, sometimes they don’t go that much further than pure
sloganeering. Of course, the defence against that point could be fairly simple:
what could one expect, political treatises or sociological essays as lyrics? But
then again, sometimes a more refined point of view could help to elaborate the
point that the band tries to express.
This small point of critique extends into the music as well. This record is
filled with really good and powerful punkrock-tunes, but sometimes Smash the
Statues seems to be a bit too much a formulaic band. By that, I mean that they
don’t sound 100% original. It’s not that bad to sound like other bands in the
genre you play, but if you’re able to make something of your own out of that, a
record can become so much more powerful. And it’s just that little bit of
originality that is lacking in this record (as well in the lyrics as in the
music), in my opinion.
Don’t get me wrong here, I like everything about this record. The music is
really good and the topics in the lyrics can be thought-provoking. The layout is
also really good, and the production is quite impressive as well. So if the
question that I started this review with is directed towards the future of Smash
the Statues, I would say that they could go to great heights from here…
Tim Habraken As-Ice feb 2006