It seems that recently, every metalcore band has to be influenced in one way or another by Poison the Well. We all know what that means, poorly written faux-poetry about how they just can’t seem to get the girl, out of place singing, throw in some soft whispers over gently plucked strings and you’ve got yourself an album. With “In Defence of Politics” GFK brings the social awareness back to metalcore, and it’s about time. I haven’t seen a band in this genre so fervently devoted to delivering a political message since Earth Crisis.

This 8 song disc begins with the song “Beat the Oppressor” which really gives a blue print for what is to come. Thick riffs, screamed or growled vocals, and speedy drumming. I suppose if I had to make comparisons I’d say they remind me of Earth Crisis and maybe even One King Down. That’s not to say that everything on here sounds the same though, this material is diverse enough to hold my attention the whole way through. The use of synth to the choruses of “She Must Rise” and the spoken word intro to “The Herman Fresh Affair” are welcome additions as they allow the band to break from their standard formula.

The lyrics are in English, French, and German, which in itself is fairly impressive. Each song includes a lengthy explanation, clueing you in on the bands motives as they wrote these lyrics. The only real gripe I have here is that like many bands that don’t use English as their primary language, some of their lyrics don’t seem to translate very well. Take the song “Modern Application” for example: “we must change the use of these ‘ethnocentrist’ glasses, there is no truth! No!” While I get the basic idea of what they’re trying to say and the explanation helps me understand the motives behind the lyrics, their English could use some work.

If political metalcore sounds good to you, GFK is your band. These guys recently signed to G7, so you can expect to hear more from them in the future. Although metalcore has really gone by the wayside and there are few bands worth giving a damn about these days, GFK managed to avoid all the pitfalls of this genre and make a strong impression.

New Form of Capitalism MP3