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. This was the follow up to the hugely successful release Return of Jaques De Molay the band went straight back into the studio in 1995 to record, but due to label problems with the German government over other releases this album was not released until 1997.

This album sounded much the same as ROJDM, but at the same time I thought that there was some growth in the band’s song writing as shown by more interesting guitar parts than previously heard. The instrumental intro even reminded me of one of the later Beatles songs, but I still can’t place it. Other than that the band still wrote songs for the lower classes about working hard, disillusionment and distrust of the government, freedom, violence, and the city traffic. This release was also a step up recording wise in that it is much easier to understand what they are saying and the guitar and bass sound much cleaner.

While the song writing and recording sounded better, I personally liked the songs on the first ROJDM better, this is a good follow up, but I would recommend buying the other one first and then buying this one.