Album Review: Madball – Not Your Kingdom
Reviewed by Dan Barnes
It’s been an eight year wait for this new Madball record, following 2018’s For the Cause, a gap that even the hiatus of 2001 can’t match. Still, Not Your Kingdom is finally with us and, from the outset, just looking at the album cover, you instantly get the feel that this is some classic NYHC.
Interminably linked to the history of the genre through familial association with Agnostic Front, Madball is one of the movements finest ambassadors, consistently touring and keeping the flame alive; and, I’d go as far to say, flag-bearers and the heartbeat of the movement.
The title of album number ten refers to the lack of autonomy we all feel when it comes to the state of the world at the present time and, according to vocalist and main man, Freddy Cricien, Not Your Kingdom is Madball’s most diverse record to date, eclipsing the eclectic nature of For the Cause, in its attempt to make sense of what’s going on.
Preceded by the single, Rebel Kids, it would suggest Madball have embraced a more metallic direction, through Mike Gurnari’s chugging guitars and Freddy’s more varied vocals, creating a fist-pumping, chest-beating anthemic tune that is sure to light the touchpaper of any pit where it is played.
Those metallic elements continue through What Say You, the tune from which the album takes its title, using simple but effective guitar lines and, despite the mid-paced nature of this tune, it still brims with energy and bite. Stab Wounds arrives in a bombastic fashion, new bassist, Paul Delaney bores through the centre of the track like a diamond-tipped drill, accentuating the central rhythm as though the pumping of an adrenalized heart.
Second single, Tethered, assuaged fan’s worries that Madball had gone all Hatebreed, by serving up an abrasive and confrontational slice of the New York streets; Mike’s guitars rip to an equal degree, but this is Madball doing what Madball do best, acting as the album opener, assuring established fans that it’s business as usual.
A short interlude, Sunrise, acts as the introduction to the thoroughly NYHC Life’s a Mural, shot through with belligerent punk attitude; Clockwork and Chase a Dream come with chugging, choppy riffs and two-steppin’ breakdowns; short, sharp shocks Flammable, Don’t MisStep and IWI combine to less than three minutes of uncontrolled rage in musical form, all flailing stomps and punk whirlwind pace.
Maybe it’s cliched or, more likely, a heartfelt tribute to the driving force behind Madball itself, but the sentiment of Family First is the core principle of the NYHC scene, be that Agnostic, SOIA, Cro-Mags, Biohazard, et al, the notion that family matters and responsibility should not be shirked, is a foundational idea to the movement. The tune stomps its slow introduction, offering a sense of security until the blasting begins and the ripping pace along with the abrasive delivery comes with fat chugs and the prospect of flailing limbs and mortal danger. So, just like family then.
Recorded in the Hardcore hotbed of Nashville, Tennessee by Andrew Baylis and the band themselves, Not Your Kingdom captures a Madball, almost forty-years into their career, but playing like folks half their age. This is the first recorded outing for the rhythm section of Mike Justain and Paul Delany and they make sterling work of it, laying a foundation upon which Mike Gumari can weave those sonic tapestries. Freddy is always Freddy and the beating heart of everything this band does.
Not Your Kingdom bristles with rage and ire, without letting it consume everything around it. Rather it’s the album we needed going into the second half of the year, and an absolute blast of a good time too.
For all the latest news, reviews, interviews across the heavy metal spectrum follow THE RAZORS’S EDGE on facebook, twitter and instagram.
