The Templars

In the world of Oi, scene dominated by loud bands often trying to hard to be tough and afraid to show any hint of songwriting abilities, the Templars stand out as a unique breath of fresh air, that while able to write a song, and use humor don’t lose any of their street cred. Their brand of lo-fi Oi is just a welcome break from the generic sound that I immediately liked this album just for the sake of being different. But this is not a new disc, but a reissue from a 1994 release that was recorded in a garage and that shows in the quality of the production.

This cd established the band first in Germany, Poland and then the rest of Western Europe before they hit big stateside. But with time the band’s work became unavailable outside of Europe and even then hard to come by until now, GMM is re-issuing many of their classic works in order to show the new generation of Oi kids, and the ones that originally missed out what Oi can be. The songs on this album deal with many of the same issues that are sung about today, such as working class pride, pride in their home city of New York, violence and intolerance in the streets, and drinking.

One of my favorite songs on here is The Sixties are Over, an anti-hippie song that sounds like it could have been a lost Grateful Dead track, and makes fun of the neo-hippies. This is a great album and if you even like Oi in the slightest bit you should check this album out. The only problems are that since it was recorded in a garage the vocals are hard to hear and get muddled in the mix.

I wish that GMM had remastered the album before the reissue, but I guess it’s also nice to hear some music that’s good on its own merit with out having to be refined by a producer.