Band: Smash The Statues
Album title: When Fear Is All Around Us
Label: Shield Recordings
Distributor: Bertus
Release date: Dec. 2008
Release: Digipak CD

Formed earlier in 2003, this Dutch Hardcore Punk band (which calls both the cities of Utrecht and Nijmegen, as well as the region known as Hoek Van Holland its home, and called the likes of Good Riddance, Propaghandi, I-Spy, and Strike Anywhere its main influences at the time) opened their offensive as a recording band with a 4-track self-titled demo that same year! Getting positive reviews from both e-zines and magazines, it brought the band quite a bit of live activity during 2004.

Singers/ guitarists Tom and Matthias (they actually change roles as lead singer, the other at that moment doing the backings), bassist Nico and drummer Bert then apparently recorded the full-length album Against The Stream during 2005 (they  even travelled all the way to Oldenburg’s Die Tonmeisterei studio in Germany for it), but its release on Angry Youth Records only came in February 2006. One of the tracks off that album however (and “175564” had also been recorded for the demo) made it onto the 2005 issued compilation album “Change The Station”, released through White Russian Records. Plenty of shows followed the release of the band’s official debut album, and the band toured through Holland, the UK, Germany, Sweden, Norway, Slovenia, and even Belgium, sharing stages with Against All Authority, Belvedere, Enemy Alliance, G.A.S. Drummers, Leftover Crack, Modern Life Is War, Red Lights Flash, Seeing Red, Strike Anywhere, Strung Out, and The Indecision Alarm, to name but the most resounding among many more! In the between-time, a couple of songs off the debut made it onto a couple of compilation albums during 2007 (“International Crimes” onto the Grassroots Projects album Esperanza – Dutch Hardcore Punx Against The G8…and “Made New Friends”, the only other track off the demo which had also made the debut album, onto Live Fast  Die! Part Deux issued by Kickass Records).

The band returned to Die Tonmeisterei in August 2008 to record the music for their new 14-tracker, then did the vocals closer at home at Snowstar Studio in Panningen (Holland). With engineering and production coming from Nico van Montfort and Pieter Vonk (who’s also added some drums and guitars; more additional guitars coming from bassist Nico and drummer Bert), you can expect a truly good sound. In addition to the influences already mentioned above, the guys now also paid more attention to the stylings of Adhesive, Black Flag, Gorilla Bisquits, Hot Water Music, and Minor Threat! The nice thing about having two singers taking the lead alternally (although the more melodic voice of…Tom, I’m guessing…is used more often) is that you can bring in some variety in that department of the whole (take the songs “On Popular Demand” and “It’s Chamberlain All Over Again”, for instance, not surprisingly the more aggressive…there’s already a good up-tempo pace overall… songs, and well-befitting Matthias’ harsher vocal style), depending on the aggression you wanna convey in a certain song. With lyrics of the socio-political nature overall, the band also uses samples from what appears to be a political debate programme on the Dutch television (yep, in Dutch) in the weirdly titled “Tanah-Tinggi” (possibly referring to a concentration camp, but that’s really an educated guess when looking at the lyrics of the song – lyrics which are made available in the booklet, by the way!). The lyrics of the song “Bayt Lahiya” have become bitterly appropriate in the last months, with Israel launching their all-out genocidal attack (let’s not kid ourselves, in the minds of the Israeli military the only good Palestinian is a dead one!) on the people living in the Gaza strip, and therefore STS want people to pay attention to the AATW organisation (Anarchists Against The Wall).

For more info, and a listen to said song (alongside “Famine, Pestilance, Death” and “Pencils And Ink”, plus two songs off the debut album and one off the demo), check out myspace.com/smashthestatueshc. Oh, and you can find a couple of live videos at YouTube to get visually acquainted with the band as well!

83/100

Tony.