It is often said that hard times require hard responses, and if proof were required we need look no further than London’s Rifle. Born from the city’s brutalist expanse, Rifle are the type of band who emit a sense of danger and that’s something that seeps through every note of their self-titled debut album. After honing their sound in small clubs, they refined it on the festival circuit, now it gets immortalised on wax, and Rifle confirms an aim is deadly and true.
It’s the eponymously-titled ‘Rifle’ which kicks this album off, and it arrives like a size 9 boot smashing through the speaker grills. Succinctly setting out the band’s stall, it’s part song, part political manifesto, and says all it has to say in 93 seconds. Indicative of the whole album, there’s
not one extraneous note, nor ounce of excess fat on this record: the band don’t use two notes when one will suffice, making this the kind of album that has the bones poking through the flesh. With only two of the eleven songs breaking the three-minute mark, Rifle is lean and hungry, and as such the band’s energies are focused into a red hot laser beam. Like an unruly street gang they attack as a unified force, the parred back nature of these songs demand that each member falls in lockstep and it is from here that Rifle derive much of their power. Sometimes less really is more: it’s acetylene boiled down into it’s purest form: it is highly flammable, so no naked flames.
While there’s definitely a forward facing nature to Rifle’s sound, a desire to tackle the future head-on, they haven’t torn up their roots and you can detect a little of Discharge’s bowel-loosening bass rumble, along with a touch of Cock Sparrer’s boot boy aggro in the band’s approach. Yet their influences are merely that; a springboard to something new and songs such as ‘Cut Me Loose’ are the sound of a band pounding their inspirations (violently) into their own shape. Those with pre-existing heart conditions are advised to keep a defibrillator close when ‘United State’ makes an appearance, whilst those who like to cause havoc in a swirling pit will feel right at home with ‘Gauntlet Of Hate’ (and indeed, the whole album). ‘Pray For All’ is a caustic closer, which is exactly where the band came in and brings the album full circle, ensuring Rifle fires a warning shot that will reverberate far and wide.
Track List:
- Rifle
- No King
- Soldier Doll
- The FlagProtest
- Cease And Desist
- Worthless
- Cut Me Loose
- Bastards
- United State
- Gauntlet Of Hate
- Pray For All
