| CD REVIEW Antillectual |
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Band: Antillectual Well, last year’s release of this Dutch band’s sophomore album Testimony must’ve been successful enough in terms of sales…or would Shield Recordings really only be concerned with bringing us Antillectual’s debut full-length because of a demand from the fans? Hey, after all that debut wàs released as a digipack on the much smaller Angry Youth imprint, eh? And the original pressing wàs completely sold out earlier in 2008! Whatever…fans of the band not having that album yet can only rejoice at being able to get that album after all! And they can now even choose between getting the album on CD as well as on vinyl!!! I’m somewhat happy to be able to tell you that I can dispense with having to do heavy research to bring you a comprehensive history-of-the-band, because I already did that for the review I did for Testimony, which you’ll find posted 17/04/2008. This article therfore much shorter and portaining on the re-issue mainly! In August 2008 the original master recordings (done by Menno Bakker with the assistance of Jan Switters at Bunt’s Studio in Utrecht during Nov. and Dec. 2004) were remastered by Shield Recordings home producer (well, I ain’t sure how connected to the label he is, but he doés do a lot of jobs for them, doesn’t he?) Nico van Montfort, whom apparently (so says the label) largely improved on the sound quality! Of course, there àre still differences! Even if the band back then was already making nicely intricate music in the vein of the likes of Propaghandi, Strike Anywhere, Rise Against, and Hot Water Music, they guys’ sound was not yet as “full” as it is today…which is normal, really, you learn that by increased experience, eh!? Otherwise, you can expect the 2005 album to sound very much like what the band sounds like today. Which means that vocally you still get Willem’s wacky hoarse voice sustained/ backed/ contrasted by the other two guys (and I take this opportunity to point out that at that time original drummer Bob was still in the fold) with either Screamo-type or normal, clean singing. Notable is the appearance of Bambix’ Wick as guest singer on the track “Raisedfistfuckyou” (a song against homophobia, and nót against the band Raised Fist…and what with footnotes accompanying the lyrics, each song’s lyrical content should be quite clear)…track which also contains a sample at the end (the band also giving a clear explanation about the Copyleft organisation – check it out when you get your hands on a copy of the album!)! And now for some update on the band’s history…after all! During 2008 Antillectual played over 100 shows throughout Europe and also in the USA, sharing stages with the likes of Propagandi, Ignite, Strung Out, Strike Anywhere, Rise Against, Against Me!, A Wilhelm Scream, The Unseen…to name but a few. Tours for January and February are already laid out to take the band through France, Switzerland, and Italy, and in March the trio will be bringing a full-scale assault on Germany. The band does not exclude the possibility, say certainty, that more tours will follow after that. For those of you who’ve already gót the original album on Angry Youth and found it wanting in sound quality, it might be interesting to compare a couple of songs, and to that end Shield Recordings have posted the re-mastered versions of “Another Guide (To Comprehensive Capitalism)” and “No Government Needed” as downloads at shieldrecordings.com. You may find that the sound quality ain’t quite what it is on the Testimony album, but you’ll agree it IS nice enough. Still, when it comes to a rating, I dó have to take off some points for the band’s not yet being able to bring that filled sound! 88/100 Tony. |