In Belgium at least they still have bands that have something to say and Missiles of October seem happy to demonstrate just that with their album “Don’t Panic” as they spit pure venom at the injustice and aggression to be found in this supposedly civilised world that serves as our cultural prison.
This is not a subtle album, nor would you expect it to be, in either approach or content but that is not to say that this is just musical brute force without purpose. The philosophers amongst you might well regard “Become an Asshole” as something of a curved ball that gains reflected power from its revelatory exploration of compliance and, even though the song is held together by every metal cliché in the book, it is a mark of quality that a band like Missiles of October can pull this off with such a lack of irony that the implied nihilism seems – almost - uplifting.
Then there is relentless fury unleashed in “Cheerleader” to consider. With misogyny and gender stereotyping brutally reversed within the lyrics, this song could well become something of a feminist anthem. “Dance with Me”, on the other hand, is the romantic song of the album with the theme of obsession, or at least obsession driven onwards and upward by the need to hot dip and consequently corrosion protect the metal structure needed to live with the undead, only this time the undead have clearly been liberated from a Jess Franco movie. Bringing the album to the end of the track is “You Pray a World of Shit” and, almost as if all hope is gone but the heart just won’t stop beating, Missiles of October reprise that all that has gone before. Powered by some concoction of nuclear power and disconnected humanity, this is a band that just won’t quit.
The album is available from Bandcamp.