I’ll inform you proper now, this factor is an absolute beast. Welcome to Dystopia doesn’t simply stand there and take a look at you from throughout the room; it kicks within the door, punches you within the intestine, and calls for that you simply pay attention. The Veer Union is again, and so they’re pissed. That is the sort of report that’ll make you wish to smash your radio and begin a revolution, even should you don’t have a transparent thought of what that revolution is. However one factor is for certain: The Veer Union is pissed about one thing, and should you’ve acquired any sense of self-awareness left, you’ll know precisely what it’s.
We’re speaking about Welcome to Dystopia right here, a hard-hitting assertion on all that’s incorrect with the world, all wrapped up in jagged, gnashing guitars and people guttural screams that make your backbone tingle in a means that feels prefer it’s supposed to harm. The title alone tells you precisely what’s coming. We reside in a society that’s decaying, rotting from the within out, and these guys aren’t afraid to rub your face in it. In case you’ve been maintaining with the fixed circus of horrors that’s been parading throughout the information today, this album may hit you more durable than a freight prepare operating at full pace.
That is rock within the twenty first century, an period the place every part feels prefer it’s about to break down into oblivion. However let’s again up for a minute. To essentially perceive what’s occurring right here, we have now to take a look at the evolution of rock music and its fiery little cousin, screamo. The roots of rock stretch again to the mid-Twentieth century, when artists like Chuck Berry and Little Richard first acquired folks to shake their hips and lose their minds to the rhythm. Quick ahead by way of the 60s and 70s, and also you’ve acquired The Who, Zeppelin, and Bowie—all of them pushing rock to locations it was by no means meant to go, increasing what might be thought-about “music” right into a kind of cultural conflict. By the 90s, grunge arrived to carry a wave of angst and disillusionment that poured into each crack within the American psyche, and out of that got here the beginning of screamo—a subgenre that took punk’s offended, loud edge and gave it an emotional, typically virtually cathartic depth. Bands like On the Drive-In and early Thursday gave beginning to an entire technology of bands that weren’t simply screaming for consideration; they have been screaming for salvation.
And now, right here we’re, with The Veer Union taking all that chaos and frustration and placing it right into a tightly wound package deal that bursts with aggression. From the second the primary observe, “No Excuse,” kicks in, you recognize precisely what you’re in for. It’s uncooked, it’s loud, it’s unrelenting. The lyrics are pissed-off, like somebody’s been protecting rating of all of the methods the system has failed us—and it’s not simply political. There’s an emotional devastation right here you can’t ignore, a way of being misplaced within the huge equipment of all of it, like attempting to scream in a world the place nobody is listening. “We’re not okay, we’re not alright, we’re drowned by daggers within the mild,” the band roars, and it’s laborious to not really feel each ounce of that.
However what units The Veer Union other than a few of their contemporaries is the best way they steadiness that rage with moments of sudden grace. Positive, they’ll scream and so they’ll wail, however they know when to drag again and offer you a second to breathe. Take “Shades of Grey,” for instance—a observe that lets its hooks breathe earlier than launching right into a gut-punch of an outro that feels just like the musical equal of being thrown off a cliff and realizing midway down that there’s nonetheless hope. It’s within the steadiness between the aggression and the house between the notes that the true magic of this report exists.
The title observe, “Welcome to Dystopia,” is the centerpiece of the entire rattling factor. Right here, the band leans into the screamo affect absolutely—there’s no pretension, no posturing. It’s simply fury and an entire lot of frustration, wrapped within the sort of visceral, unrelenting scream that makes you’re feeling such as you’re drowning. And that’s the factor about this album: it’s a whole emotional expertise. It’s not simply concerning the offended guitars and the shrieking vocals; it’s about how all of it comes collectively to make you’re feeling the load of the world urgent down on you. The lyrics minimize straight to the guts: “Within the coronary heart of the ruins, the place all of it started,” they sing, and it’s just like the band is supplying you with a map to comply with by way of the wasteland of their minds, one bleak step at a time.
“Dig Their Personal Graves” is one other spotlight, a observe that’s as a lot about private rise up as it’s about systemic collapse. It’s about rejecting the lies that the world retains telling you and staring down the wreckage, absolutely conscious that it’s all going to hell—however nonetheless discovering the energy to withstand. It’s not only a music, it’s a declaration. “Open your eyes to their standard lies,” they shout, and it looks like an awakening.
However let’s not child ourselves: this isn’t a report for the faint of coronary heart. It is a band that’s all about making noise, making a multitude, and tearing down the partitions that separate the reality from the lies. It’s laborious, it’s offended, it’s stunning in its chaos. In case you’ve been trying to find a soundtrack to the disillusionment of the trendy world, that is it. It’s rock as a weapon. And God is aware of, we may use a couple of extra bands like The Veer Union in today of existential disaster.
Ultimately, Welcome to Dystopia isn’t simply an album—it’s a battle cry for anybody who’s nonetheless keen to battle. And should you’re not prepared to select up the torch, nicely, you higher begin operating. As a result of that is one dystopia that’s laborious to flee.
Mindy McCall
Associated
HeartBeat4Kids
