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Noflag: Spit English or die

10/02/09 || theProphet

Reviews are coming in slowly here at GD these days, and there’s even been talk about people getting the axe. Oh, and at Global Domination, we have an actual axe.

As I realize that I’m one of the people who’s been slacking, combined with the fact that I dearly desire to keep my head attached to my somewhat flabby torso, I’ve been forced to delve deeper into the “to review”-bin of albums sent to us. And let’s face it, this is very seldom a pleasant experience for anyone. Honestly, the amount of absolute turds people have been forced to listen to and review for this site over the years is completely fucking unfathomable.

Thankfully then, Noflag actually is half decent. Fully decent even.

These frivolous Frenchmen serve us a platter of groovy, metalized hardcore punk with a huge tongue in cheek factor. The main ingredient in “Spit English or die” (very lame title, no irony) is the riffs, which range from somewhat generic to incredibly danceable. Though I would desire, since this is punk after all, a little more violence in the songs from time to time. I’d like to feel a little more threatened by this, which I guess is kinda unachievable due to the tongue in cheek and all. Still, the humour thing works well here, so I wouldn’t really want to trade it away. Alas, I’m a bit ambivalent here, but I guess it is like with every other “funny” band, namely that they are fun for a while, but ultimately you’re gonna go for their hotter friends. Or is it the other way around? Are we still talking about music?

Now I got confused, and I won’t go back and change it, god damn it!

Musicianwise, the performance is solid all across the board, except perhaps for the vocals which are kinda grating at times. Also, there’s a female vocalist on the album’s best track “Breaking the Pelvis” (which is great songtitle, let’s face it) with a phenomenally groovy chorus and lines such as:

Let me see your cunt, either wet or dry

Anyways, the girl’s singing sounds absolutely horrible, yet it somehow works pretty well. That these guys will never be commended for their deep, insightful lyrics is another thing. Apparently, in France puberty hits you when you’re in your thirties…

The production on “SEOD” is pretty slick and definitely more metal than punk, a fact which is easily discernible since the bass is audially non-existent. Hell, that’s a bit unfair, it’s not non-existent but it tends to get buried in the thick guitar sound.

So what we got here is a good and well rounded effort, with room for several improvements, put that shit on tape and slap a real clusterfuck of an album cover on it, and it gets:

A shaky 6,5 revolutionaries born about 200 years too late out of 10.

Information
Released: 2008
Label: 666 Productions
Website: www.noflag.com
Band
since their MySpace only lists the bandmembers as “five dirty motherfuckers”, I’ve decided to use the lineup from 2001:
Arno: vocals
Olivier: samples
Laurent: drums
Gus: guitar
Loïc: guitar
Mic: bass

Tracklist
01. Sexy 6
02. Eat my Knee
03. Where’s War Today ?
04. I Found your Brain Yesterday after the Party
05. Spit English or Die
06. Stay Rock Hard and Longer
07. The Fat Madam and her Sweet Little Dog
08. Deadbeat and Proud
09. Breaking the Pelvis
10. Dickheads, Bastards and Assholes all Together
11. A Lack of Order
12. Opportunism (S)kills

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