Gotta give David Dictor credit -- nearly a quarter of a century on from the start of
MDC and he's not only still pissed off at the idiocies of the world, he's got the energy of his younger self as well.
Magnus Dominus Corpus also features a bit of a reunion of sorts, in that original guitarist X-Con Ron Posner is back in the fold, part of a five-person lineup that kicks things off with the contemptuous "Destroying the Planet" and takes it from there. If anything,
Magnus shows most clearly how hardcore punk is very much a folk music of its time and place -- old enough not merely to have roots performers but multiple generations at play, new members of the band helping out elder statesmen. In that sense, brief dollops of reggae and rockabilly (and even a
Bush-trashing reworking of the Beverly Hillbillies theme) aside, the music of
MDC is traditional -- quick riffs, shout/singing, and damn quick drumming -- leaving it to Dictor to serve as the member calling out what time it is. As such, he has his idée fixes -- two songs in particular, "Poseur Punk" and "Timmy Yo," the latter being the album's one slow ballad, dedicated to his longtime friend and editor Tim Yohannan, are condemnations of those who don't walk the walk punkwise, though whether that's a battle worth fighting will depend on the beholder. That Dictor sounds no different lyrically elsewhere -- two separate songs trash the police, while several rage about the
Bush Administration and the Iraq War in particular -- is on the one hand consistent enough and on the other hand makes one wonder whether the symbolic battle needs to be as important as the outright political one. Perhaps more effective than anything is the blunt imagery throughout -- most memorably with the cover image, showing the remains of the hired U.S. mercenaries killed in Fallujah, Iraq, in early 2004, reframing what was portrayed in America as a tragedy into a symbol of revenge. ~ Ned Raggett