On October 18th, 2005, Winnipeg natives and self-described “progressive-thrash” band Propagandhi released their fourth full-length album,
Potemkin City Limits. It had been almost four and a half years since their last album,
Today’s Empires, Tomorrow’s Ashes, was released, but the band proved to gain little rust since their absence. The running joke that followed this album is that Chris Hannah (guitar/vocals) had left the band and been replaced by Glen Lambert, who many quickly found out was actually… Chris Hannah. Some still fell for the joke until it ended August 14th, 2006 when they announced on their website that Glen Lambert had been “canned” and Chris Hannah was back. They also announced the adding of second guitarist who goes by the nickname “The Beaver” (Dave Guillas).
If you aren’t familiar to Propagandhi, they have a reputation of being actively against homophobia, sexism, human rights violations, racism and capitalism. They are all vegans and their songs consist mostly of political and social commentary.
Potemkin City Limits is no exception. The band has slowed down a bit on this album, but are still able to produce effective songs even when they aren’t as aggressive as their previous work. But that’s not to say
Potemkin City Limits doesn’t have aggressive songs. The second last song on the album, “Superbowl Patriot XXXVI”, sung by bassist Todd Kowalski is by far the most anger-driven song on the album, which really shows off their thrash/hardcore influences. Todd also sings a lot more on this album compared to
Today’s Empires, Tomorrow’s Ashes. Being a long time fan of all of Propagandhi’s work, it was a bit odd at first hearing songs sung by Todd and not Chris, but I quickly got used to it. This is not to say he has the most amazing voice in the world, but usually the message is so strong, I find it hard not to like it.
The album is full of commentaries on real-life events. “Rock For Sustainable Capitalism” is a blatant shot at the Warped Tour and NOFX. Which is pretty ironic seeing how Fat Mike owns one of the labels that this album was released on (Fat Wreck Chords). But nothing ever seems to stop Propagandhi from being brutally honest. Some other topics discussed on the album are the three men who were murdered by members of the Saskatoon Police Department (Rodney Naistus, Neil Stonechild and Lawrence Wegner) and “America’s Army”, the official video game of the US Army. They also made a parody site of the video game (americasarmy.ca), where you can read the lyrics to the song and also download it. Propagandhi have been known to be one of the most outspoken bands out there (and probably considered offensive to some).
Musically,
Potemkin City Limits is put together very well and their best album to date. All the songs flow very nicely and it is full of great riffs that will make you question if Chris Hannah can really play them and sing at the same time (specifically around the 1:54 mark in “America’s Army”). Moving onto the rhythm section, Todd’s bass lines are well written and sound great with the tone he has going. Jord Samolesky (drums) is a great drummer and from my drumming knowledge (which is not very much). He has written some very original and intricate beats on this album, which isn't much of a surprise.
I couldn’t think of a better way to end off this album the way they did, with their longest track on the CD, “Iteration”. I consider this the new “Purina Hall of Fame”, as it’s their most solid song on the album (and possibly to date in my opinion), it’s the last song and it features a killer guitar solo to end it off.
Overall, this album is perfect. It combines the older, more punk rock style with the newer, and more thrash/metal side of Propagandhi. They’ve definitely stepped it up a notch since
Today’s Empires, Tomorrow’s Ashes. Even though that album has always been my favorite, I’m starting to think
Potemkin City Limits will soon replace it.
Recommended Tracks
A Speculative Fiction
America’s Army (Die Jugend Marschiert)
Rock For Sustainable Capitalism
Iteration
Official Site: http://propagandhi.com
Record Label: http://g7welcomingcommittee.com
This Message Edited On 04.04.07
