Album Review: The Exploited – Punks Not Dead / Troops Of Tomorrow
Reviewed by Dan Barnes
Formed in Edinburgh back in 1978, Hardcore Punk heavyweights The Exploited – like Discharge and Charged G.B.H. – were the central, unholy trinity of the abrasive, in-your-face, fast-as-F, and likely to stop the grass growing, second wave of Punk bands.
The originators of the genre were united by an attitude, but the bands who would go on to be gathered under the banner, UK’82, were fast and furious, asked no quarter and gave none either. Rather this was something the public had not seen before and would go on to influence a whole host of young musicians, to form bands like: Slayer, S.O.D., Napalm Death, Agnostic Front and so many more, it’s an article all of its own.
The band’s debut record, Punk’s Not Dead hit the shelves in April 1981 and, as you can probably deduce, was titled to take a shot at the critics who’d already announced the death of the genre. It was – and still is – a fearsome collection of fast and furious punk ragers that went someway to show the naysayers that the proliferation of the then-popular new wave and post- punk bands was no substitute for the real thing.
Opening with the title track, hitting with a cover of little-know punk stapple, Mucky Pup – from the even lesser-known, Puncture – and Cop Cars, The Exploited offer no respite from the sub-two-minute aggression. Free Flight mixes it up a little, with a less urgent tempo and a buzzing guitar line, Army Life (part II), Blown to Bits, Royalty and Dole Q all sound closer to the first wave’s ethos than the frenzied attacks the band are better known for.
Exploited Barmy Army, Out of Control and I Believe in Anarchy are all based around big, singalong choruses, none more so than the five-minute stomper, Sex & Violence, which is just about what you need to know about that one.
Bonus tracks on this disc look to The Exploited’s five releases prior to Punk’s Not Dead. From 1980 come the debut Army Life and its follow-up, Exploited Barmy Army. The first set addresses frontman, Wattie’s experiences as a teenage solder on the streets of Northern Ireland, Big John Duncan’s guitar emits a strained, distorted delivery of seasonal classic Jingle Bells, with the lyrics changed appropriately on Fuck the Mods, leaving Crashed Out to come across like Sham 69.
A few months later and Exploited Barmy Army gave us single edits of the title and I Believe in Anarchy, alongside a rampant What You Gonna Do? The single Dogs of War includes a live version of Blown to Bits as a B-side; Dead Cities finds the aggro back, with the unsubtle Hitler’s in the Charts Again and the bouncing bass of Class War.
Closing out the thirty songs are live versions of SPG and Cop Cars, which were released in 1981 as the first half of a split with Anti-Pasti called Don’t Let ‘em Grind You Down. Elsewhere, is the inclusion of Daily News and I Still Believe in Anarchy, lifted from the Oi! The Album compilation.
The following year and The Exploited would release the follow-up to Punk’s Not Dead with Troops of Tomorrow, taking the name from The Vibrators song, and finding the band with a new presence on the drum-stool. Danny Heatley took over from Glen Campbell (not that one!) for the recording of this sophomore disc, otherwise it was as-you-were in the songwriting department.
There are plenty of times across Troops… when The Exploited adopt a more metallic sound to their melee, especially earlier on: Jimmy Boyle, Daily News and USA are all hewn from the same sort of Rock as the mighty Motörhead; and if you attended Body Count’s shows this summer, the trio of Disorder, War and UK’82 will be familiar from the shows and the Judgement Night soundtrack with Slayer.
It's the track, UK’82 from which the sub-genre of Hardcore Punk took its name and was used as the opening title sequence of the Alan Clarke directed, Tim Roth starring Made In Britain from 1982.
Elsewhere, Troops… is a collection of rampaging hardcore punk, as abrasive and snotty as you remember, but with no apology offered. Rapist, They Won’t Stop and So Tragic are set to destroy from their launch, while Germs brims with a latent punk attitude and Sid Vicious was Innocent is explosive in all manner of ways.
All things considered, it’s probably the most punk thing to call this album after a) a cover song, being The Vibrators’ V2 track from 1978, and b) it’s the least The Exploited song on the record. Rather than assaulting with speed and volume, Troops of Tomorrow is slow and doomy, stretching out to over five-minutes and being all kinds of exhausting. Just for balance, Captain Oi! has included the album’s original version and a radio edit running a couple of minutes less.
Bonus material comes in the shape of three 1982 single releases: Attack, backed with Alternative, both are catchy and bass-centred, specifically Alternative, of which a remix version sits on the album proper. Y.O.B. is the kind of trauma-inducing tune those of us of a certain age won’t appreciate – not that the song is to blame, rather the subject matter. This was lifted from The Exploited’s split, Britannia Waives the Rules, with Infa Riot and Chron Gen.
Finally, there is the somewhat datedly-titled, Computer’s Don’t Blunder and its B-side, Addiction, both of which rage and grind with hardcore energy.
Both Punk’s Not Dead and Troops of Tomorrow cemented The Exploited as being one of the leading lights in the subgenre they named. Neither of these records have lost their aggression or importance over the years and to see them repackaged in this manner, with all the associated bonus material, is heartening. A generation who were late to the band’s hey-day now have an excuse to find out what they missed.
Like Discharge before them, the band would continue to make records through the Eighties, from Let’s Start a War… (Said Maggie One Day) in 1983 to The Massacre in 1990; yet only Beat the Bastards and Fuck the System came after, the latter being issued back in 2003.
The Exploited remain a regular attraction on the live circuit, and the image of Wattie Buchan’s mohawk has become as iconic to the punk scene as the cover of Never Mind the Bollocks or of Paul Simonon smashing his bass.
Another hit from Captain Oi! Keep ’em coming, Skipper.
