HAVOK — Conformicide (review)

Album · 2017 · Thrash Metal

2/5 · 2017-05-31
Warthur

Thrash bands of the 1980s weren't averse to social commentary; some have never veered away from it, though some have politically drifted away from where they started out. (Remember the Republican-baiting Megadeth of the Rust In Peace era?) Havok's Conformicide seems, lyrically, to be an attempt to do the same, though since the lyrics are cringe-inducing that's kind of a problem. Opening song FPC rants about political correctness in terms which I've typically only seen from grumpy libertarian teenagers on Reddit and the more rabid parts of the right-wing tabloid press in the UK who like to claim to be anti-authoritarian but never seem to notice the authoritarianism of their own political fellow-travellers.

(Heck, there's even a song based on Orwell's 1984, a novel so exhaustively riffed on by hands over the years that it's become about as much of a cliche as Lord of the Rings, and Havok certainly don't have an especially interesting new take on it.)

Sometimes political viewpoints you disagree with in music can be happily ignored if the music is good enough, but unfortunately in this case the lyrics are the most notable features of the album, the music being rather generic thrash given a somewhat sterile production. Given that we already have one Dave Mustaine, I'm not convinced we need more alt-right thrash metal artists yelling their opinions at us.

more than 2 years ago
Permalink
Report #342403

Share this review

Review Comments

Post a public comment below | Send private message to the reviewer

Please login to post a shout

Warthur wrote:

more than 2 years ago

"PC culture, mainstream media, and government corruption" are sufficiently consistently the Reddit right's declared targets that I'm satisfied that this album fits the bill, at least in terms of my interpretation.

Unitron wrote:

more than 2 years ago

I agree with Thatcher, to label someone (or in this case a band) "alt-right", just because they criticize certain factors of leftist politics just seems petty. I don't care if someone agrees with politics or not, but it's another thing to label something with a term that is associated with things like Euro-Nationalism, when this album contains absolutely nothing of the sort. Political corruption is political corruption, no matter what side it happens to be on.

aglasshouse wrote:

more than 2 years ago

I heavily disagree with this review. I for one am not a member of the right-wing, nor the big bad "alt-right", but to say that Havoc's criticisms of corruption and problems of the liberal side of American politics is null because they don't similarly attack their own side is just mind-boggling to me. Not only can that argument be levied at political criticism in general, I'm sure if you switch on the television to a popular news channel for a few seconds a segment denouncing the right will be playing. Conservatism has been derided and mocked for decades in music, and frankly it's gotten tired. Both sides of the spectrum have their problems, and I for one am glad that a metal band has decided to criticism the not-often-criticized. Also, to say that criticism of political correctness doesn't also come in large part from facets of the left is just wrong.

Vim Fuego wrote:

more than 2 years ago

I'd call it alt-right myself. And very dull. And Dave Mustaine was so confused about politics back in the day he didn't know which side of the house he sat on.

Unitron wrote:

more than 2 years ago

I get that this political thrash doesn't seem to be to your tastes, but the lyrics on this album aren't alt-right in the slightest. The lyrics are attacking PC culture, mainstream media, and government corruption which is, if anything, Libertarian.