The Blamed - Give Us Barabbas

Just as Seattle was idealized as the city to carry the grunge rock culminate in the early ‘90s, Chicago is rapidly aggregating as the post-rock primary. However, that blueprint just doesn’t fit into the Blamed’s agenda. Their Fugazi-influxed roots are primed to set the most current geographical stereotype ablaze and retire the prefix of post to simply leave rock, unpasteurized and pure. These four post-punk misfits are here to splinter spiritless babble and splatter the canvas of their hometown – if not the world – with manic, unpredictable and spastic rock that flails in every direction. That’s right – the Blamed now rock harder and roll longer with their newest release, Give Us Barabbas, than anything in their decade spanning discography. With now only a sole surviving member since the band’s incipient framework, the Blamed has rekindled its fire to enlist young-at-heart punks that are willing to dismantle conduct codes and reform beliefs of their own in its place. Of course, all modern punks have a point of reference and Give Us Barabbas stands as a salute to Fugazi’s flagship album, Repeater, a dozen years after it first scorched stereos. However, where tracks such as “The Jealous Answer” and “Fictionary” sport this musical derivation on their sleeves, the Blamed often entrench on detours off the highway of classically christened Fugazi. “1200 Stares” begins with a trio of slurred voices chanting, “We won’t stop what we start as long as it stops before they start in;” as this corruption clashing four-some soon explodes into a tantrum of squawking horns, foreign tongued vocals and cacophonous noise that rivals the Locust’s astringency. Further disjointing the Blamed from its D.C. precursor is the power-pop of “Positive,” a song that would be more aptly placed in an unlisted Jimmy Eat World album than to ultimately destroy the intensified progression of punk endowed works that Give Us Barabbas upholds. Nonetheless, it’s beautiful to see such a band crawl back from postmortem fame to lace the post-rock hallucinogenics of their surroundings with a keen sense of reality. Overall, the Blamed retain classicism – insinuated by the bruises that also batter Fugazi’s seminal foundation – while stamping a neoteric seal of squalling urgency. Furthermore, the Blamed lacerate your ears with punk ethics and charismatic kick-starts that are both audacious and exuberantly mannered. As those very aphorisms of Give Us Barabbas impact this raucous four pronged assault in an intense fashion, the Blamed somehow still feel like a whirling wind of fresh air – despite the number of times that this review was strewn with the ubiquitous F-word. And no, not that f-word. [www.theblamed.com]