Crass-style political punk updated for a 21st century battle that makes Maggie Thatcher and Ronnie Reagan's early-'80s adventures in the South Atlantic and the Caribbean look as mingy and pointless as they were,
Whose War Is It? pulls no punches from the very beginning. The opening "War Crimes" is as deadly serious as the most urgent political manifesto, setting a pointed critique of the government's unseemly haste to ignore its citizens' civil liberties to just the sort of speed-thrash riffs that will make an old-'80s punk's eyes grow misty. The evocation of that musical era is deliberate, since
Star Strangled Bastards include members of hardcore stalwarts
D.R.I. and
Battalion of Saints in their lineup. The rest of
Whose War Is It? -- 13 songs in barely 26 minutes -- circles back around to the same themes over and over again, worrying them like a dog with a particularly juicy bone. Songs like "System of Greed" won't change the minds of anyone who doesn't already agree with the sentiments, but
Whose War Is It? is as strong as political punk gets in the era of the Patriot Act. ~ Stewart Mason