Album: Wank For Peace – Fail Forward

10 October 2014

Struggle Town Records

2/10

Wank for Peace are a French hardcore punk rock band who sadly put more thought into their name than into creating music. And evidently they spent little time on the name as it is.

The quintet’s sixth LP Fail Forward achieves little other than a headache from a combination of the drum pattern that doesn’t change once throughout the whole album, and the lead vocals that sound like a chain-smoking banshee after a tracheotomy. Opening track ‘Friends First’ lets you know exactly what you’re getting into with extremely distorted power chords and throat-shattering vocals. Follow-up track ‘Heavy Shoulders’ at least has a better melody but third track ‘Five Steps to Nothing’ sounds so similar that I had to double check I hadn’t accidentally pressed repeat. Track four ‘Is That What You Expected, Kid?’ continues in this fashion and if I was the titular kid, my answer would be yes by this point. It is here that you’ll notice not only how every song sounds the same but also how tedious the album gets in a very short time.

All the clichés are present on the album too. Every song has backup chants typical of hardcore DIY punk, like a battle-cry to rally the troops of miserable twats who think the world owes them a favour. Each song is also packed with lyrics of self loathing that serve only to contribute to the tediousness of the album.

There are two positives however, tracks ‘You Are the Weak Spot’ and ‘Mea Culpa’ employ some decent bass work which is a nice relief, though short lived, to the repetition. The other positive is that at least the tracks are short, some clocking in at less than two minutes.

Wank for Peace unintentionally describe their latest LP Fail Forward in the first word of both its album name and the band name and do nothing new or interesting in it. It is by far one of the most boring albums I’ve heard in a while and listening to it was as mind-numbing as what I imagine office work to be.