Chaos In Tejas Preview: Propagandhi's Supporting Caste [A Look at Canada's Favorite Secular Rock Band]

Following a series of records for the venerable punk imprint Fat Wreck Chords, Propagandhi started their own label, G7 Welcoming Committee (a reference to the global finance summit held in Canada) at the turn of the century and adopted a much heavier, metal-influenced sound. To anyone accustomed to the middling skate-punk sound of their earlier albums, Supporting Caste opens with an oddly heavy, metallic stomp on "Night Letters," a tune which eventually segues into a more familiar hardcore gallop. The juxtaposition between these two sounds becomes more streamlined as the album progresses; musically, Supporting Caste is light-years ahead of the band's earlier work. Remarkable musicianship is displayed throughout, particularly on the spidery guitar interplay of "Tertium Non Datur" and the appallingly fast "This Is Your Life."

Lyrically, Supporting Caste avoids overt literalism in favor of poetic allusions to class struggle in potent lines like "history exalts only the pornography of force" (from the title track). With the exception of a few missteps, such as the bizzarro comparison of a pro-troops event preceding a hockey game to a Nuremberg rally in "Dear Coach's Corner" and the self-righteous pro-vegan (or actually, anti-omnivore) screed "Human(e) Meat (The Flensing of Sandor Katz)," the lyric sheet conjures a frighteningly accurate portrait of a world dividing itself into extremes, eradicating the gray areas of critical thought and diversity for mindless groupthink.

Odd, then, that those aforementioned missteps fall into the same close-minded trap. While the music itself, pairing chunky Big Mac-and-cheese metal riffs with skatecore stylings, is hardly esoteric, the ideology espoused in the lyrics and on the band's website, while admirably disciplined and idealistic, is narrowly confined to a stringent set of behaviors with no room for ambiguity or compromise--mental processes that actually enable diversity and tolerance. One would be hard-pressed to find many rational people willing to compare the consumption of animal meat to cannibalism, as Propagandhi members have stated in interviews, or to justify fantasizing about the revenge-murder of farm and meat processing employees (from 1996's "Nailing Descartes To The Wall").

Despite these criticisms, Supporting Caste makes a number of valid (and timely) points about the individual's role in society, and the consequences, personal and political, of removing oneself from the equation. Count it as a bonus that these insights are accompanied by a record that sounds great blasting down the highway at 70 miles an hour. Judging by Youtube clips of the band's current tour, their forthcoming Chaos In Tejas appearance promises to be memorable in more ways than one. Just leave the leather jackets at home.

Propaghandi Website

Propagandhi will perform on Thursday, May 21 at the Mohawk with Trash Talk and Canadian Rifle. It's an all ages show.