Anti-Flag - For Blood and Empire

Rating

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RIYL

NOFX
Rancid
Against Me
AFI

Label

RCA

Tracklist

1. I'd Tell You But...
2. The Press Corpse
3. Emigre
4. The Project For A New American Century
5. Hymn For The Dead
6. This Is The End (For You My Friend)
7. 1 Trillion Dollars
8. State Funeral
9. Confessions Of An Economic Hit Man
10. War Sucks, Let's Party!
11. The W.T.O. Kills Farmers
12. Cities Burn
13. Depleted Uranium Is A War Crime

Users Rating

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1 rating

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Recent Ratings

At first listen, I rated this CD a 2/5. My editor, Rick, sent it back to me and told me to give the review a second take, pretty much telling me that I had not let the album fully sink itself into me. Maybe I wasn’t in the right mood for Anti-Flag, or maybe I just wasn’t getting the CD, but by the fourth and fifth time I spun For Blood and Empire, everything began to fall into place. The vocals hit me like a ton of bricks, the simplistic punk rock chords struck me over the head, and the overall effect helped me to realize that For Blood and Empire could possibly Anti-Flag’s greatest release to date.

Initially, the vocals were dead to me and I believed them to be contrived and pretentious. I thought anyone could write such straightforward lyrics and sing them while only make only minute changes to pitch every once in a while. Midway through the disc, singer Justin Sane’s vocals remind me faintly of Davey Havok’s in the All Hallows EP era. To put it bluntly, this CD has its fair share of "Woah"’s and "Ooh"’s. The songs took upon a more personal meaning lyrically, almost convincing me to side with Anti-Flag on all aspects of what they believe in… almost.

Some old school fans might be disappointed with the flow that this disc has. It’s not as unrefined or fast-paced and energetic as I would have hoped for in an Anti-Flag release. For Blood and Empire most resembles The Terror State out of all other Anti-Flag releases. It’s a pop release, but with a punk rock mentality. Also, the disc is pretty much all over the place. It has some punk anthems ("This Is The End"), danceable tunes ("The Press Corpse"), and some fast blazing tracks ("Depleted Uranium Is A War Crime" and "I'd Tell You But..."). This CD has songs for everyone but, unfortunately, if you only enjoy one style of Anti-Flag, you’re up a creek with only half a paddle.

I believe Anti-Flag wanted to broaden their audience with this release in hopes to sell records. That’s pretty much what a mainstream label does to bands like Anti-Flag. Nonetheless, For Blood and Empire is a solid release. At first I didn’t appreciate the change that Anti-Flag chose for this disc, but you take what’s put on your plate. I chewed this one up and spit it right out. After a while, just for curiosity and a little pressure put on me by my editor to rethink my review (mainly the latter), I rethought, reanalyzed, retried and rerated For Blood and Empire and came to the realization that this actually is a lot better than many critics will give it credit for.

--Sam Maclean

Author

Unsupersam
Last updated: 09/29/2009 08:54PM

Comments

jared
04/28/2006
09:31AM
Age: 30
Location
Minneapolis, MN
I had bad feelings about this CD from the beginning. AF signed to a label and I thought that was going to be it. As much as they claimed they had full control and rights over what they released, I still didn't believe it. Major labels have a way of working into the minds of their artists and making them think they have control when they really don't.

I'll admit, I was wrong. This is a straight up Anti-Flag release. As mentioned in the review, it is varied and the sound is similar to Terror State. "One Trillion Dollars" was the song that caught me most off-guard. What a perfect theme to the recent changes Bush has been making.

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lpshinobi
04/28/2006
12:51PM
Age: 23
Location
VT
"This Is The End" is a disgrace to the rest of the album. Other than that, it's pretty good.

My Top Songs of '09
The Appleseed Cast//as the little things go
Caspian//sycamore
Sunwrae//Chinook Winds
Dredg//down to the seller
If These Trees Could Talk//the sun is in the north
From Monument to Masses//an ounce of prevention
Straylight Run//i'm through with the past


LpShinobi's Post-Rock and Shoegazing Recommendation, via YouTube

Lpshinobi's Post-Rock Band, New Song Posted

tim
04/29/2006
12:15AM
Age: 28
Location
Green Brook, NJ
i love this. it's so damn catchy. i guess they really are the "hot topic band" of the poli-punk genre, but whatever. it's still good. "hymn for the dead" rocks.

on another note, though. new ignite is better.
Anonymous
05/07/2006
08:32AM
Fuck this band. They want you to believe they actually know something about politics, but they don't. Listen to their lyrics - they're too sophomoric to ever take seriously. They'd be a "deep" political band if their peers were 4th graders.
jared
05/07/2006
08:59AM
Age: 30
Location
Minneapolis, MN
Stinky Pickle
Fuck this band. They want you to believe they actually know something about politics, but they don't. Listen to their lyrics - they're too sophomoric to ever take seriously. They'd be a "deep" political band if their peers were 4th graders.
I think they do know what they're talking about but they present it in an easily digestible format. What's the average age of an AF fan? I'd take a guess and say 17 or 18. Someone at that age is going to relate to "fuck the fucking government" a lot more than they would to some political rhetoric.

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Anonymous
05/07/2006
09:18AM
RATM did pretty well with a moderately advanced form of political rhetoric instead of "fuck government, they're dumb". Granted, it's hard to find a band that has a lot of political intelligence in their lyrics, but it can be done instead of sounding like a load of whiney pricks that can't think of anything else to write so they go to the well with their tried and true "fuck government" technique.