new music: reason to rebel’s ‘this gun is human’ is a call to arms #soundcheck

Sounding a bit like the missing link between At The Drive In and Rage Against The Machine, Southern California based Reason to Rebel peppers their songs with calls to arms and scathing social commentary. Their latest record This Gun Is Human seems like an attempt to live up to their name and literally list the varied reasons to rebel. Over 11 blistering tracks that take post-hardcore riffs and meld them with hip-hop and the occasional proggy diversion, the band delivers a plea for listeners to rebel against injustice and oppression.

Despite opening with a pessimistic declaration that “the end is certain” in “The End,” the band won’t let it come without a fight. The straightforwardly titled “Protest Song” traces the money and power structures that underline so many of the problems at the heart of American society, before they go for broke in the album highlight “Civil Obedience.” With industrial nods, frontman Luke Chandler stretches his vocal chords to their limits to push for “full fledged anarchy.” The record ends with a fists-in-the-air generational anthem in “Millenials.” It’s a song about refusing to settle for the messes we’ve been handed, and a plea for generational unity to overthrow oppressive power structures. “We got short changed,” Chandler intones before the shout-along chorus kicks in. The end may be certain, but how and when it comes is up to us.