It is time to head back to Sweden, more precisely to Malmö, aka Crime City, home of the best falafels of Northern Europe, good hardcore bands and Urban Savage, which is today's subject.
How can I describe Urban Savage to you ? I would say that they are a Oi!/UK82 sounding band, with obvious hardcore and rock'n'roll-ish/cock-rock influences. They seem themselves not to care much about what they are labeled as (they describe themselves as "hardcorepunkoirocknroll or whatever" according to their facebook page), and that's good, who the fuck needs a label anyway. What's important is that the music is good. And Urban Savage is good music, let me tell you that.
No-compromise songs driven by strong bass lines, with powerful vocals backed by good gang choirs is what you will get here. The sound is changing through the songs, for example songs like "When the Day Comes" and "Those Who Go & Those Who Stay" are more rock'n'roll-ish (here you will here that cockrock influences I was talking about), while "Minimum Wage/Maximum Slave" as a more Conflict feeling to it all, and "Fight to Win Fight to Lose" is definitely sounding more Oi! In the end it reminds me, once again, a lot of that whole Boston-Oi! scene (namely Battle Ruins, Hammer and The Nails or Tommy and the Terrors), or bands like Hired Goons and Syndrome 81, mixing musical genres to end up with a great sounding result.
But the most important with Urban Savage is definitely the lyrics. I hope you like songs about drinking beers and being a smartly dressed skinhead. Because that's absolutely NOT what Urban Savage is about. These guys will bring you back straight to reality, reminding you what life really is. And it's dark and hard according to them. And they're right. The lyrics deals with what's wrong with society, how you get fucked up by it and how you should not give up and fight back. For that matter I would definitely associate them with Hammer and the Nails, because they deal with the same kind of subject (and have kind of the same sound influences, to me) : everything that is wrong with the modern world. If I had to choose my favourite song on that 12", it would definitely be "Wolves", the bass line, the dark ambience, the lyrics... Everything is just perfect to me in that song. But once again, every songs are good on that album.
As the band said themselves, this records includes "no download codes - no silkscreened cover - no free lollipops". Everything is straight to the point, DIY insert, plain black vinyl, good "let the thunder roar in Malmö" (I guess the cover is depicting Malmö ?) looking artwork (it's self-released by the band through their own label, Savage Records). You don't need more than this and you will anyway not get anything better than this. Because Urban Savage are just fucking brilliant. If you want to listen to something more than just "Oi! Oi! drink beers wear boots", if you want reality to punch you right back in the face, and if you're into great music, then Urban Savage is made for you. If you don't, you can still continue listening to Evil Conduct. But that's your problem.
Anyway, it's always good to see that Sweden is producing some of the best actual punk bands, I mean, between them and Sabotage, both producing great music with clever and socialy aware lyrics, it just doesn't get better than this.
I read that these guys were going to have a new song on the upcoming volume (number 8 if I'm not wrong) of Turist i Tillvaron (which is a great swedish punk compilation serie. If you want to know what's going on in Sweden right now, get these records, because they're great and they give a wide perspective of the swedish scene), and I can only be glad with that because I want to hear more from Urban Savage. This is definitely a record you want to have, so make yourself a favor, contact the band and get this 12". I can assure you you won't regret it ! This record is going to be the prefect soundtrack to my winter ! Here you can listen to some of the songs included in the full length.
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