by David Wilikofsky
Retaliation, the debut album from The Chisel, makes its intent clear in its opening lines: “Tell me whats the difference between right and wrong / When a copper gets to blast a lad who did nothing wrong / Tell me why I shouldn’t spit, in the face of every politician who looks to condone it.” The Chisel are not happy with the state of the world, and they’re not going to mince words about it. The London based band formed last year during the pandemic, steadily building buzz with a string of singles in the interim. Their debut album lives up to the hype they’ve built off those few songs. It’s a howl of rage, a modern day punk manifesto about the ills of contemporary society and the struggles of the working class.
While the targets of their ire vary, The Chisel’s songs consistently spell out their leftist worldview. Class struggle looms large; “Shit Life Syndrome” explores the plight of people “left on the edges of society”, while “Not The Only One” details the lack of opportunity and fair wages for the working class. Elsewhere they rail against the shadowy figures that control societal power structures: the government, the media, the rich. They despise xenophobes, edgelords and bullies of any kind. They want revolution, and they’re willing to take to the streets to make it happen; those who sit by in silence are just as complacent in perpetuating injustice.
Sonically the group never pigeonhole themselves, mining punk history without ever feeling indebted to anything in particular. The album’s fourteen tracks cover a wide range of sounds. “Come See Me” and “Nation’s Pride” have the pummeling energy and breakneck riffs of hardcore, while other tracks like “Not The Only One” and “Tooth and Nail” are shambolic, sing-along punk anthems; still others pull from different strains of British punk like Oi! or anarcho-punk. The band is on point throughout, but they shine brightest at their most anthemic. I find myself wanting to join in with their shout along choruses, and in spite of the fact that the band has barely played live to date, it’s not much of a stretch to imagine the energy of a sweaty, beer soaked club ecstatically screaming along with them.
The most important ingredient of punk has never been a particular sound or political message, it’s always been attitude. It’s something that The Chisel deeply understand. Even if you can’t pick out every word of frontman Cal Graham’s anti-capitalist and anti-authoritarian rants, you can sense the simmering rage at the status quo seeping out of his howled vocals. That energy is continually matched by the whole band, whose shambolic playing sometimes verges on collapse but seems to hurtle forward out of pure necessity. Necessity is the key word here; the whole album feels like something the band had to get off its chest, a lifetime of anger and passion materialized into just under thirty minutes of punk bliss. If you want to hear what vital punk music can and should sound like in 2021, look no further than Retaliation.