Arson Anthem are an underground semi-supergroup featuring vocalist Mike Williams (of
Eyehategod), Phil Anselmo (
Pantera,
Down,
Superjoint Ritual,
Necrophagia, Christ Inversion) on guitar,
Hank Williams III on drums, and the relatively unknown Collin Yeo on bass. This full-length album follows a 2008 self-titled EP, and demonstrates a great leap forward in the band's style and execution. Where the EP was a batch of blurry, occasionally sludgy D-beat hardcore,
Insecurity Notoriety is a noisy punk album in the spirit of great '80s acts like
Die Kreuzen and
Damaged-era
Black Flag. Songs like "Hands Off Approach" begin as blasting hardcore, but devolve into dissonant noise à la anti-anthems like
Fear's "Getting the Brush" or the various works of
Flipper. Meanwhile, other songs like the title track and "Has Been/Had Been" pump the energy level up with anthemic power.
Williams sounds clearer and more comprehensible than he ever has with
Eyehategod, making the lyrics easy to decipher, as Anselmo's stinging guitar and Yeo's thudding, groaning bass fight for space atop
Williams' fleet, machine-gun drum work. The production is clear for a punk record, avoiding noisy-for-noisy's-own-sake murk and making this a seriously compelling listen. Anselmo's side projects are sometimes pretty great (
Superjoint Ritual) and sometimes pretty awful (Christ Inversion). This one definitely belongs on the positive side of the ledger. ~ Phil Freeman