When it goes down to doing great music, swedish Oi! is always somewhere near. The swedes know how to do great melodic songs, usually along with good lyrics (in swedish as well as in english). Sabotage, a rather new band from Stockholm (capital of Scandinavia, as the panel says), fits perfectly in that description. Given the musical past of the band members, that's not a big surprise : these guys have been or are still involved in Agent Bulldogg, Antipati, Vindicate This! or Contemptuous, to quote a few. Great bands, to make it short. The first time I heard about Sabotage was last summer, in July I guess. I was immediately struck by how good the band was. Think about an even more melodic version of the Templars (for the whole sound, which would be almost distortionless guitars), with great texts about everyday life (in swedish, which give the band even more charm to me, it's always better -and probably easier- to express your feelings in your own language, at least it is to me). If you happen to have that record, take 10 minutes and translate the lyrics (even with shit Google Translate, at least you'll get the spirit), they worth it. And as I said, great melodies going on as well, especially the light/simple (in the good way) but extremely efficient solo guitar. Nothing fancy there, but I couldn't think of any better lead guitars than these for those songs. They give an extremely melancholic (couldn't think of any other better word to express what I feel) feeling to the whole thing.
So we have here 3 songs, "Färdiga Doktriner" which is, if I understood well, a song against PC idiots and moralists, which are for sure a plague of the scene. Who needs the advices of the scene-police anyway ?
"Bättre Utsikt" is in some way dealing with the same subject as the song before, saying that you don't have to choose a side, and that it's better to stay away from political bullshiters and idiots. Stay away and watch them run like sheeps, that's pretty much the message.
Last song, "Inget Tack", is my favorite song. It's all about working class pride and how even if you work hard for the greater good and give everything you have you will never get anything back, not even a thank, and you will end up a less than nothing, thank neoliberalism for that. That one is extremely well written, that's not your usual "oi! oi! working class drink beer boots and braces" going on here, and that's for the better. I can see what I think is a reference to Ebba Grön here ("Stat och kapital och nyliberalism/I samma båt i en hav av skit och piss"), so this can't be bad.
The cover consist of a yellow griffin head on an oxblood background (my guess is that the griffin head is a reference to one of the Stockholm's county emblem, but I can be wrong on that though). Inside you'll get an inner sleeve with lyrics and thanks. Note that the vinyl is a nice oxblood with yellow splatter one, to fit with the global artwork of the cover. Nice object ! All in all, Betraktelser Från Staketet is a strong release by pretty Shitty Town, I was really looking forward to it (from what I understood it was supposed to be out a little sooner) and I'm not disappointed at all. Even if 2014 just started, that's clearly one of this year's best record. I hope we'll get more of that soon ! Don't hesitate to get this record, this is nothing less than a pure blast !
