Truthfully, Propagandhi would prefer to have people hear their message rather than their music. Sure, they like to rock, but they also like to envision the end of oppression and inequality. That means Propagandhi don't sing about bubblegum and holding hands, and there's a fair amount of ranting throughout their performances.
But to be clear, Propagandhi is nothing like your stereotypical leftist political-punk band. Don't go writing these guys off as another Anti-Flag. The music is powerful, not lame. The messages are educated and built on logic, as opposed to childish and built from cheap angst.
Although the band's message never changed, their actual recordings have displayed a drastic evolution since they debuted with How to Clean Everything in 1993. The main reason for this change was the presence, and then departure, of bassist John Samson.
Samson, who eventually created the Weakerthans, was more of an indie-poet sort. Lead singer, guitarist and seemingly the driving force of the band, Chris Hannah was a thrash-metal enthusiast with major shredding ability. Both Hannah and Samson are two of the best lyricists of any musical era, and it's a bit of a shock to consider they were in the same band. Along with drummer Jord Samolesky, the three combined to make a hardcore punk sound that often gets unrightfully lumped in with NOFX and the skate-punk scene.
Samson's departure after Less Talk, More Rock marked a shift toward Hannah's thrash inclinations. Hannah dropped his sneering punk vocals for a cleaner style, revealing a surprisingly powerful singing ability. Hardcore punk veteran Todd Kowalski, of I-Spy, took over for Samson and played an increased singer-songwriter role through the band's next three albums, including their most recent.
Supporting Caste is the clever name of the band's latest masterpiece. All their albums are great, but with their latest they've outdone themselves.
The first song, ""Night Letters,"" is a Kowalski track, where the improved drumming immediately stands out. Samolesky's work with polyrhythmic arrangements and tricky time signatures definitely adds something to the sound. This track is heavier and more technically advanced than typical Propagandhi.
Hannah's best song on the album must be ""Human(e) Meat."" That belligerent suspicion rising within you is correct. Propagandhi are animal-rights proponents—vegans, more specifically. ""Human(e) Meat"" details the more glorious aspects of animal dissection and consumption. Knowing entirely too well that selfish impulse tends to suffocate logic, Hannah ends with an appeal to health: ""Post-vegetarian I must submit to you, respectfully / be careful what kind of world you wish for / Someday it may come knocking on your door.""
Kowalski's best song, ""Incalculable Effects,"" is also the highlight of the album. The lyrics illustrate with concision the crushing weight of child poverty and its derivative, the practice of compensating for one's lack of agency with a chemical addiction. The music sounds like a brilliant blend of High on Fire and Propagandhi's last album, Potemkin City Limits.
This review would need to be at least twice as long to effectively document the depth of each track on this album. All that can really be said is that this band is something else, and they've set the bar for 2009 very, very high.
