Antillectual – Testimony

Antillectual did a pretty good job on “Testimony”. They like their punkrock the way Dag Nasty, Strike Anywhere and Rise Against play it and shit, I don’t really have any problems with that at all. I say punkrock but there’s both rock and hardcore parts to discover just the same. And they make it work throughout most of the songs. So musically this one definitely gets a thumb up.

But then come the lyrics… it’s kinda okay to force your lyrics to fit into songs even though they don’t seem to be written for them and hey, it’s cool if you have a message you want to spread. Actually I’m all for it otherwise I would listen to pop music. But I never liked it when bands print their lyrics in the booklet and then post this explanation next to it. Let your fans figure out out what the song means for themselves, don’t spell it out! There’s one song here called “I Hate Myself When I Shave Myself” which is probably the most retarded song title of the year. But then you read the disclaimer next to it and you find out it’s actually not a song about shaving at all! Gosh! It’s about how we do all these things to fit in, including shaving even though we don’t like it! What a great metaphor! Such vivid imagery!

Anyway, the music here is more than okay but they need a lot more work more on the lyrical department!
Score: 6.5 out of 10
http://www.theshieldhardcore.com
http://www.myspace.com/antillectual