Encouraged by the continuing success of their reissue and rarities sets on the Cherry Red-affiliated punk label Anagram, British political punks
Disorder reunited again for 2005's Kamikaze. Impressively, the 16 tracks here not only sound of a piece with the band's sterling '80s work, they're performed with just as much energy as they would have been in the band's early days. (Actually, "Insane War" and "Riot" take the nostalgia just a step too far, sounding like they were recorded on a cheap handheld recorder in the band's rehearsal room in the old D.I.Y. fashion.) Unlike most of the other political punk bands of the '80s, such as
Crass or
the Ex,
Disorder have no truck with expanded musical forms or stylistic experimentation: this is one blast after another of inchoate rage packaged in two-minute bursts of hyperspeed drumming, distorted guitars, and screaming vocals. Strictly for fans of the old school, then, but Kamikaze is as brash and invigorating as any of
Disorder's earlier releases. ~ Stewart Mason