“When it gets dark, punch the future in the face” – Kurt Vile advised us many years ago. Few groups have taken on this task with more enthusiasm than Rear Frontfearless synth-punk duo from Edmonton, whose second album Watch it diecomes with brutal catharsis as the haymaker lands squarely on the teeth of death.
“In this time of madness / How does this beauty survive?” Graham McKinnon screams on the album's title track. The answer, it seems, is to squeeze into a studio with your best friends and crank up your instruments until they start to give way.
It's a formula that McKinnon (vocals, guitar and bass) and bandmate Clint Fraser (synths, keyboards, drums and programming) first explored on Home Front's acclaimed 2023 debut. Games of Powercombining elements of post-punk, new wave and industrial rock into what they call “bootwave”: a gritty subgenre reminiscent of the rhythm of heavy boots stomping on frozen concrete; crunching through a layer of snow, almost frozen toes.
Filled with powerful drum machines and sparkling arpeggios, the record was thrillingly heavy and distinctly Edmontonian, reflecting the charming weirdness that hums quietly beneath the city's notoriously gritty exterior. Released on the cusp of winter and amid the chaotic throes of late capitalism, the sequel feels like a beefed-up version of the debut – its lyrics and music imbued with a newfound sense of urgency, heightened by an almost desperate desire to hold on to life as the systems that support it fall apart.
“I'm not afraid to die / That's the hard part of life,” McKinnon sings on the bittersweet “Eulogy,” putting on his best Robert Smith impression as the band pays tribute to “friends gone too soon.” Fraser's drums frantically bring down the anti-capitalist “For the Children (F*ck All)” like an underwater hydraulic press, setting the pace for the rousing anthem: “Fuck it, this is all we have left!” On “Empire,” the band bask in the comfort of brotherhood from their perch on the icy prairie, watching America slowly crumble into the sea and threaten to drag us down with it.
Most albums that have this kind of tempo and a lot of screaming tend to become tiresome or monotonous over time. Remarkably, Home Front manages to avoid this fate by deftly sliding between different sounds and genres – “Kiss the Sky” makes heavy use of cowbells to create the band's most danceable track, while “Dancing with Anxiety” sounds like a hidden B-side from a Nine Inch Nails song. Cute Hate Machine — embellishing each song with subtle electronic accents or manic drum sounds.
The result is a dozen songs that are a joy to listen to and that are unlike anything else in the world of rock music right now. Much of this is due to the playful DIY production provided by Nick Kozub (Fraser's former Edmonton dance-punk bandmate). Shout out out out) and additional devices provided screwed upIt's Jonah Falco who gives the record a stunning sound quality that's uplifting but never jarring. In their capable hands, the distorted bass guitar sounds like it was found in the seventh circle of hell, and the menacing synth line feels like it was plugged straight into the sun.
Taken together, I would venture to call this album one of the most ambitious and heaviest rock albums to come out of the Canadian prairies in recent decades. And unlike other up-and-coming Edmonton artists who rushed to leave the city. only to wallow in increasingly tiresome solipsismThe home front discovered magic by drawing on the strength and resilience of its community, using the raw emotions of friendship and a steely determination to survive.
“We are born alone/We die alone,” McKinnon declares on “Light Sleeper.” Watch it dieuplifting single. “Never think that you have to live alone!”
