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Drones are a London-based, in-your-face, all-out, old-school punk rock band made up of Lois McDougall (vocals), Rob King (guitar), Tim Kramer (guitar/backing vocals), James Kerr (bass/backing vocals) and Mitchell Thomas (drums). They’ve just released their album, Exiled, and here’s what we thought…
Exiled is very much a hardcore, politically-charged, punk rock, concept album, inspired by the current refugee crisis across Europe and as such, is attempting to deal with a very relevant issue. Vocalist, Lois McDougall, further explains,“Exiled is a collection of songs that we began writing after being struck by the misery of the European refugee crisis. Some of the songs are written from the perspectives of fictional characters of those impacted by the crisis, and others of those who prefer to distance themselves from it. Millions of people are suffering every day and it’s a subject that should be kept at the forefront of all of our minds. Music is a great platform for personal connection. We’ve taken a subject that can so easily be viewed as a distant-seeming ‘world-issue’, and tried to make it more personal. In doing so, we hope that people may feel more compassion for the victims, and that those suffering may find an ounce of comfort in these songs. Exiled is dedicated to those fleeing any war-torn country.”
It certainly has managed to deliver this and lyrically addresses the issues it set out to face, however in places, I find the lyrics a bit frank; too obvious and not necessarily clever, however that is often the nature of punk music. In spite of this, it is a fast, furious and fun record, with some very chantable choruses and moshable guitar riffs, particularly the likes of ‘For Those Who Care’, ‘Inferno’, ‘Rorschach’ and ‘Anchors’. Then, towards the end of the record, it gets even thrashier.
They’ve delivered a poignant, angry-sounding album that is intent on highlighting current issues.
Conversely to this, the band have a couple of tokenistic ballad-like songs, with the acoustic-driven ‘Black Blood’ and the Metallica-esque, ‘Sickbay’, which add a little depth to this otherwise intense album.
Despite Drones being very much an traditional, politically-fuelled punk band, the production is top-notch, yet still hasn’t lost the charm that an old-school punk band would have had. It’s not over-produced and there a slight imperfections, which all add authenticity to the record. In places, this band remind me of 2004, punk rockers, The Fight (remember ‘Can’t Be Bothered’?).
This is certainly an album you would want to see live, to let yourself lose by bouncing around to your heart’s content. They’ve delivered a poignant, angry-sounding album that is intent on highlighting current issues, but unfortunately they are not going to set the world alight or make any significant changes to music, or punk. However, they know their sound and they execute it well.
Rating
‘Exiled’ is out now and can be downloaded from iTunes – https://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/exiled/1317378913
Exiled on Spotify
Rorschach (Official Music Video)
Territories (Official Music Video)
Inferno (Lyric Video)
We hope you’ve enjoyed our review of Drones’ new album, Exiled! What do you make of it? Are you a fan? What would you rate it? Please leave your thoughts in a comment or hit us up via our social media.
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