the muslims’ ‘fuck these fuckin fascists’ is the album 2021 needed

“I don’t give a fuck if you’re mad,
you can die mad”

It’s something that needs to be said perennially: if you think punk’s dead, it’s just cause you stopped paying attention. Fresh off a move to the venerated Epitaph Records, The Muslims’ Fuck These Fuckin Fascists is an absolute monster of a record. The Muslims have never exactly minced words, and here their already razor sharp songwriting is filed down to a point, and then jabbed straight into the eye of the nearest semi-ironic fashy punk.

From the opening seconds of “Hands Up, Don’t Shoot” on down, The Muslims hand in an album that pulls exactly zero punches. But this isn’t the joyless topical punk that far too many acts trade in, it’s fun as hell in its evisceration of the white supremacist Christian hegemonic capitalist cishetero patriarchy. For every deadly serious cut like “Unity” or brutal satire like “Illegals” there’s a moment of absurdist anti-state rage like “Crotch Pop A Cop.”

The band has never been tighter, but neither do they shed the ramshackle charm that made their earlier records great. The distortion is fine-tuned and the drums are massive, and QADR’s vocals exude a stage-honed confidence. Abu Shea’s bassline on “IDGAF” is the kind of line destined to go down in punk history. Punk records are rarely this meticulous while simultaneously being this full of life.

The title track is a natural highlight, hook-filled and ferocious, while “Coronavirus” is a much needed burst of catharsis about the jackasses who are dragging the pandemic out. But The Muslims save the most eye-catching for last. A song that somehow exposes the nuance and complexity of the enemy-of-my-enemy trends that create pop culture icons out of assholes by imagining the ghost of John McCain teabagging 45. It’s that glorious mix of sophomoric humor, righteous fury, and surprisingly deep insight that makes The Muslims special. It’s very dumb. It’s very smart. It’s fucking perfect. The revolution has no business being this much fun.

Follow The Muslims @TheMuzlimz for more.