Generation Decline, the death of hubris Review: An album to burn the world down to.

 
As a frequent shopper at rainy day records prior to moving house, I always went down there to look for new cassettes for my collection, as I was looking through the metal cassettes I came across this band:

(The exact one I own)

The death of hubris struck me hard, As an anarchist hardcore kid myself seeing this album cover, the ruined city being overlooked by punks, with the battlevests including the Peace anarchy sign, Crass logo, BLM fist, and the gender anarchist symbol. 

Naturally it was no contest, it's rare for me to see an album that's a reflection of my own values front and center. so I bought the tape and hightailed it home to listen to it, and this ladies and gents marks one of my best experiences with hardcore punk.

the death of hubris wears its anti establishmentism on it's studded sleeve, coming out in 2020, the year of the pandemic, the death of george floyd, and when the world as a whole took a hard turn down the shitter. It's a time capsule of the worst time in a LOT of our lives and that aggression comes through CLEAR throughout the entire album, each songs lyrics are pure vitreol towards a bullshit system that doesn't care about you, using punk rock as as a weapon against oppression and prejudice.

For any hardcore kid this album is well worth a listen, I haven't felt such intense secondhand rightous anger since Listening to dead kennedys for the first time. While I consider every song on the album to be at least good, Here's a few of my favorites.

Lullaby: A direct "Fuck you" to the proud boys, Lullaby outright calls them out and tells them they're full of shit and are nothing but a group of racist fucks, as they are, honestly the song speaks for itself "FUCK THE PROUD BOYS MODERN DAY KKK" Naming the enemy directly is something more bands need to do, it's one thing to just say "Racism bad" it's another to go "These people are fucking nazi's! screw em!"

Detained: Probably my favorite on the entire album, Detained is explicitly anti deportation and Anti ice. It doesn't shy away from the ugly truth of it. Detained says clear what happens in the deportation camps, how families are broken apart, The sexual assault and losses of children. And toward the end asks "How many more lives will have been lost, before we shut the centers down and abolish ICE" and again I have to respect calling out ICE back when they were in the news daily, and with the new trump administration Detained is a song that everyone should be sat down and forced to listen to.

The Funnening: Just a hardcore party anthem, A made by punks FOR punks, Its about building up each other in the community and going to the shows and parties.

Revolt: The final track, the most unique of them all, It opens up with what sounds like a news report about the revolts that happened after the death of george floyd then goes into a hardcore track that is VERY 2020. the hospitals running out of beds, businesses being shut down yet the police getting more funding due to the riots. it's a call to action against the police, lines like "How can you say there's not a problem when we're policing our own police?" stick in my head. It's aged all too well. the song, and album ends with a chant "Black lives matter! black lives matter!" truly Revolt is a protest set to music and perhaps personifies the rage of the 2020s the most of all the songs in the album.

As for the instruments, the guitarist's go absolutely nuts, they're genuinely badass, the riffs and solos get top marks from me, they're aggressive, angry, their strings were probably on fire towards the end. The drums are also absolutely killer and exactly how drums in any punk song worth their safety pins should be, Fast, punchy, and aggressive.

The vocalist is a woman, less common for hardcore bands (in my experience) and she absolutely KILLS it throughout the album, you can practically hear the anger in her voice. 

Overall The death of hubris is everything a politically charged punk album should be. Loud, angry, and uncompromising. I can't recommend the album enough and give it top marks.

easy 10/10.