Thursday 23 April 2020

Fatal Blow - Tent City Reality



  Fatal Blow (https://www.facebook.com/fatalblow161/) are an anti fascist oi/streetpunk trio from South Wales who line up with Paul Cobley (vocals/guitar), Nidge Downs (bass) and Antal Kizmus (drums). If a couple of those names seem familiar to you, it's because the band started as a side project of The Oppressed. They released a split ep in 2017 with Oi Polloi and have been pretty prolific ever since with the Hope Not Hate and Victimized albums plus the Live In Manchester lp. Last month saw them return with new album, Generals And Soldiers. 

  The album mixes things up between the personal;
  Skinhead Time Bomb deals with false preconceptions ("You hate me, for my boots and braces. won't approach me, because you believe the lies...") whilst Last Skinhead In Town laments the loss of mates (some of them got married, some are up in heaven whilst others are behind bars) whilst vowing to carry on with the skinhead lifestyle (a lifestyle also touched upon in the eponymous Fatal Blow ("For the boots, and the braces and the angry faces"). The title track is a footie hooligan song ("Saturday's heroes, home and away")....

  ...And the political;
  Still Hate Thatcher is pretty self explanatory (Vocalist Paul grew up in a mining community) as is Party Political Bullshit ("See that face on your tv, it's a politician talking to you. He's lying through his false teeth, but it looks as though the message is getting through..."). Proud Boys, Proud Of What displays their Antifa roots ("Mummy's boy is nothing but a racist jerk") and Sink The Ship asks why rock the boat when you can sink the fucker with a hammer blow.

  All in all, a great oi record that would have sounded every bit as good in 1982 as it does today. You can find it here : https://thefatalblow.bandcamp.com/album/generals-and-soldiers-2  The cd has the added bonus of Live In Manchester added on and the vinyl version should be available in a few weeks  https://www.madbutcher.de/index.php/component/muscol/F/212-fatal-blow/434-generals-soldiers

  This track is about homelessness and how it's ignored by politicians,  it's called Tent City Reality...


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