MADNESS AND PURITY

This is the 16th Mutiny in Jonestown studio album and I always think of it as, "the angry album"! It's really broken into two halves. The first half (aka "Madness") consists of the first four songs and is likely best described as heavy prog ending with the odd time signature instrumental, "Plastic Horned Devil" (name checked from the Captain Beefheart song, "Telephone").

The second half of the album (aka "Purity") is quite a different story. Hanging around the background (and occasionally poking through) of the bands musical influences is 80's US hardcore punk rock. Bands like the Dead Kennedy's, Black Flag, The Minutemen, Husker Du, Suicidal Tendencies, Fear, DRI, MDC, etc were all big listening influences just before the band was formed. This half of the album is Mutiny in Jonestowns' take on hardcore punk. Being that the album was written in the post 9/11 early 2000's, there was a lot of source material on the news that lended itself to political punk. Dubya, the IRS, the invasion of Afghanistan, terrorists, the patriot act, capitalist greed and more are all commented on in these songs. A sample lyric from the song, "Our George" gives an idea of what these songs are about, "He's the leader of the free world, grand poobah of the brass. He doesn't need a speech writer he needs an English class". Fun stuff!

Two of the songs from the hardcore punk section of the album ("All's I Want" and "Dog Food") begin the compilation, "Anthology III 2003 - 2014". This is actually one of my favorite Mutiny in Jonestown albums as I especially love the hardcore punk songs, but since there's only a small number of prog songs on it and that's the criteria for rating, I'll have to give it only 2 stars. However, if you're a fan of hardcore punk and prog (I know there are a few of us out there), you should really give this one a try!