Propagandhi

Today's Empires, Tomorrow's Ashes (2001)

This is the best punk album of the year. Period. It blows my mind that this band actually managed to get even faster and heavier without sacrificing those delicious riffs and melodies. I like that the lyrics have gotten more mature (this does not mean that they lost that trademark asshole attitude. Trust me, catch them live after a few brews) and I must say that I'm impressed with Todd's ability to bust out those screams. Nice to hear him finally on a studio album.

Faster. Heavier. Smarter. Plus hours of socio-political reading and multimedia from some of the most dissenting bastards on the continent. Why won't it let me post six stars?

Oh, and P.S: I'm a moderate fan of the Weakerthans, but you could count my praises for thousands of years that those cheesey songs with John singing (you know the ones) are finally gone.