Tattooed Mother Fuckers/Offensive Weapon - Split 7" (Mother Fucking Sounds/Skinflint Music - 2013)

Time to go back to some warmer (and more rainy) shores. Let's talk about the split EP between England's Tattooed Mother Fuckers and NYC's Offensive Weapon. I guess everybody knows who's involved in T.M.F., so there's no need to remind it here or to talk more about it, and you might want to note that Offensive Weapon's line-up includes members from bands such as Oxblood or First Strike. The last production from T.M.F. I had listen to prior to this was their Hey Ho! Let's Go! 7" (no Ramones cover involved) that left me a good impression, and I discovered Offensive Weapon through their marvelous self-titled full length probably a little more than a year ago. So that split sounded like a nice promise to my ears.
So, two songs per band, one band per side. The A-side is T.M.F.'s, and starts with the song "Welcome to the Greyzone", which is about saying things as they should be said and not kneeing down in front of anyone, the second one, "Fuck Off and Die" which is basically a middle finger to anyone who talk down the band, opened by a nice bass intro. Brutal mid tempo in-your-face and no compromise sound and songs, with singalong choruses and kind of metalish sounding solos. I like the first song more I must say.
The Offensive Weapon side includes the song "Legion of '76" about the loss of the values and traditions their forefathers fought for in the various wars America was involved in. The other one, "Change the Law" is an advocacy in favor of death penalty for rapist. Yep, no compromises here as well. While the first track is slower than the usual Offensive Weapon stuffs (it sounds more like their great ancestors Youth Defense League), the second one is a fast-paced one and sounds perhaps more "punk" for say (a friend of mine use to qualify them as "a right wing punk band", I don't care much if their right wing or whatever, but well that ain't false, you can see it as patriotic punk with a strong skinhead attitude). Anyway, it's still the great fast, angry and hateful american Oi! style sound that I liked so much in the band's 12", and I'm glad about it.
This split was released with two different covers : one for Europe (see above) and one for America (it's coming). To me the american one is way nicer, but that's my personal opinion. 250 black vinyls and 250 white vinyls for the Old World version, 150 red, 150 blue and 200 white copies for the Land of the Free. Both versions come with a lyrics sheet and a digital download code (nice initiative !).

The american cover's artwork

Well, both sides are good, but in the end to me, just as in 1783, America wins it all. I'm now really looking forward to the release of Offensive Weapon's next 12", that, I guess, should be out sometime during next year.