I’ll inform you proper now, this factor is an absolute beast. Welcome to Dystopia doesn’t simply stand there and take a look at you from throughout the room; it kicks within the door, punches you within the intestine, and calls for that you just hear. The Veer Union is again, and so they’re pissed. That is the type of report that’ll make you need to smash your radio and begin a revolution, even for those who don’t have a transparent thought of what that revolution is. However one factor is definite: The Veer Union is pissed about one thing, and for those who’ve obtained any sense of self-awareness left, you’ll know precisely what it’s.
We’re speaking about Welcome to Dystopia right here, a hard-hitting assertion on all that’s improper with the world, all wrapped up in jagged, gnashing guitars and people guttural screams that make your backbone tingle in a method that feels prefer it’s supposed to harm. The title alone tells you precisely what’s coming. We stay in a society that’s decaying, rotting from the within out, and these guys aren’t afraid to rub your face in it. When you’ve been maintaining with the fixed circus of horrors that’s been parading throughout the information as of late, this album may hit you tougher than a freight practice operating at full pace.
That is rock within the twenty first century, an period the place the whole lot feels prefer it’s about to break down into oblivion. However let’s again up for a minute. To actually perceive what’s taking place right here, we’ve to take a look at the evolution of rock music and its fiery little cousin, screamo. The roots of rock stretch again to the mid-Twentieth century, when artists like Chuck Berry and Little Richard first obtained individuals to shake their hips and lose their minds to the rhythm. Quick ahead by means of the 60s and 70s, and also you’ve obtained The Who, Zeppelin, and Bowie—all of them pushing rock to locations it was by no means meant to go, increasing what might be thought of “music” right into a type of cultural battle. By the 90s, grunge arrived to carry a wave of angst and disillusionment that poured into each crack within the American psyche, and out of that got here the delivery of screamo—a subgenre that took punk’s indignant, loud edge and gave it an emotional, typically nearly cathartic depth. Bands like On the Drive-In and early Thursday gave delivery to an entire era of bands that weren’t simply screaming for consideration; they had been screaming for salvation.
And now, right here we’re, with The Veer Union taking all that chaos and frustration and placing it right into a tightly wound bundle that bursts with aggression. From the second the primary monitor, “No Excuse,” kicks in, you understand precisely what you’re in for. It’s uncooked, it’s loud, it’s unrelenting. The lyrics are pissed-off, like somebody’s been retaining rating of all of the methods the system has failed us—and it’s not simply political. There’s an emotional devastation right here you can’t ignore, a way of being misplaced within the huge equipment of all of it, like attempting to scream in a world the place nobody is listening. “We’re not okay, we’re not alright, we’re drowned by daggers within the mild,” the band roars, and it’s arduous to not really feel each ounce of that.
However what units The Veer Union other than a few of their contemporaries is the way in which they stability that rage with moments of sudden grace. Certain, they’ll scream and so they’ll wail, however they know when to tug again and provide you with a second to breathe. Take “Shades of Grey,” for instance—a monitor that lets its hooks breathe earlier than launching right into a gut-punch of an outro that feels just like the musical equal of being thrown off a cliff and realizing midway down that there’s nonetheless hope. It’s within the stability between the aggression and the house between the notes that the true magic of this report exists.
The title monitor, “Welcome to Dystopia,” is the centerpiece of the entire rattling factor. Right here, the band leans into the screamo affect absolutely—there’s no pretension, no posturing. It’s simply fury and an entire lot of frustration, wrapped within the type of visceral, unrelenting scream that makes you are feeling such as you’re drowning. And that’s the factor about this album: it’s an entire emotional expertise. It’s not simply in regards to the indignant guitars and the shrieking vocals; it’s about how all of it comes collectively to make you are feeling the burden of the world urgent down on you. The lyrics lower straight to the center: “Within the coronary heart of the ruins, the place all of it started,” they sing, and it’s just like the band is supplying you with a map to comply with by means of the wasteland of their minds, one bleak step at a time.
“Dig Their Personal Graves” is one other spotlight, a monitor that’s as a lot about private insurrection as it’s about systemic collapse. It’s about rejecting the lies that the world retains telling you and staring down the wreckage, absolutely conscious that it’s all going to hell—however nonetheless discovering the energy to withstand. It’s not only a track, it’s a declaration. “Open your eyes to their standard lies,” they shout, and it looks like an awakening.
However let’s not child ourselves: this isn’t a report for the faint of coronary heart. This can be a band that’s all about making noise, making a multitude, and tearing down the partitions that separate the reality from the lies. It’s arduous, it’s indignant, it’s stunning in its chaos. When you’ve been trying to find a soundtrack to the disillusionment of the fashionable world, that is it. It’s rock as a weapon. And God is aware of, we may use just a few extra bands like The Veer Union in as of late of existential disaster.
In the long run, Welcome to Dystopia isn’t simply an album—it’s a battle cry for anybody who’s nonetheless prepared to battle. And for those who’re not prepared to choose up the torch, nicely, you higher begin operating. As a result of that is one dystopia that’s arduous to flee.
Mindy McCall
Associated
HeartBeat4Kids
