Although recorded and released in 2000, most of the songs featured on "Call on my Brothers" are remastered tracks from the "Ignite/X Acto split" in 1997 and the "Straight Ahead" tape in 1995. The songs on this CD are more in the vein of the "Past our Means" EP than Ignite's most recent effort "A place called home".
The production of this albumn is good, all the songs sound crisp and clear, which I thought spoiled the "Past our Means" EP a little bit. Musically this albumn is awsome. Ignite mixes it up with a 16 track mixture of punk and hardcore. Songs such as "Call on my Brothers", "Ash Return" and "Straight Ahead" have a more hardcore sound as opposed to songs like "In my Time", "man against man"and "slow" which are short, fast punk rock. Simple as that. The albumn never becomes bland or repetitive either with a few slower ones thrown in for a bit of variation. ie "50 and a month".
The guitar work on this albumn is solid. The band is very tight. The bass work of Brett Rasmussen (the only other member along with Zoli Teglas still in the band from this CD) is a highlight, as is the drumming, check out "Man against Man".
"Call on my Brothers" is a very listenable hardcore album. Zoli's voice is always a highlight of Ignite music and the vocals on "Call on my Brothers" are no exception. Zoli's voice is intense and you can tell just by listening to him that he is very passionate about what he is singing about. What's more, you can actually hear what he is saying. His voice is hard to describe, its melodic but it's still hardcore. Backing vocals are prominent on this record, with the entire band bringing a few points across in numerous songs on this CD.
Ignite confronts the listener in "Call on my Brothers" with a range of issues, some which are getting a little generic in punk/ hardcore. ie racism and politics, however in this case it is done so passionately you don't feel your getting the same old thing. Ignite is an environmentally concious band, this can be seen throughout the booklet with appeals for donations from organisations such as "Earth First", "Pacific Sheperd" and "Sea Sheperd" also with lyrics like "My species kills off everything close to me........no more hunting, no more murder, no more trapping no more hate".
As the record title suggests friendship and loyalty is a big issue for ignite and some of the lyrics on this issue give me goosebumps when I hear them. "It is the weak who are cruel there worth is always wrong, compassion and kindness is only expected from the strong, a friend who's not faithful not caring won't last the fight, but my foes know my friends this gives a lucky light, COMPASSION, LOVING, BROTHERHOOD, LOYALTY, THIS IS FRIENDSHIP AND ALL ITS MEANING IS WORTH TO ME........NEVER TURN YOUR BACK ON YOUR FRIENDS OR FAMILY CALL ON MY BROTHERS" Long quote for a review I know but it sums up the sincerity and intensity of the lyrics on this CD which are definantly a highlight. (That's the last time I'll say highlight)
If you have never heard Ignite before I would say it is more of a mixture between punk and hardcore that is done so well by bands like Rise Against and Stike Anywhere, rather than all out hardcore in the vein of Madball, Strife or Raised Fist. "Call on my Brothers" is a must for any Ignite fans of punk in general.