ALBUM REVIEW: Heed Case – All The Rage (self-released)
Heed Case are a new North East duo comprising long-time Angelic Upstarts guitarist Neil ‘Newts’ Newton and psych-rock bassist Si Cadelik. All The Rage is their debut album.
The pair met playing in the short-lived full band version of Rum Lads (whose one and only album Noise Terrorists is reviewed here), and decided to keep working together when it split.
They describe themselves as ‘merchants of northern noise’, and that’s certainly what they produce on All The Rage, which consists of 16 slices of opinionated punk rock.
As well as classic punk, there’s bits of new wave, psych rock, and a pinch of post-punk, all melded to good effect.
Culture wars
Inspired by the work of American self-help author Dr Stephanie Sarkis, All The Rage explores gaslighting and narcissism in modern society, against growing trends of self entitlement, culture wars and identity politics.
The percussion load is shared by man and machine, with Mick Robson (In Evil Hour/Kickback Generation) and Jamie Oliver (UK Subs/Ultrabomb) adding some human feeling to a basic programmed drum machine beat.
All The Rage kicks off with the title track, two minutes of angry noise about those who use social media to spread their bitterness and hate.
Anyone who’s heard Noise Terrorists will recognise a couple of these tracks, as Heed Case have reworked their own versions of Blunt Truth Trauma and Anti Social Club, with new lyrics and Newts handling vocals, as he does for the whole album.
Almost half the tracks weigh in at two minutes or less, which fits the angry tone of the whole album, and given Newts’ past in the Upstarts, it’s fair to say making music with Mensi for so long has rubbed off on him.
WTFH delivers a damning verdict on the genocide in Palestine, as Newts fumes: “What the fucking hell are you waiting for?/Thousands dead and they’re gonna kill more.”
Much of the album is more personal, with songs like Rip It Down, Imposter, Smokeblower and Take Aim calling out the fakers, bullshitters, bluffers and wannabes who seem to infest every area of every life nowadays.
Pigs is a barbed attack on the fat cats who’ve spent the last couple of years increasing their wealth while ordinary folk struggle to make ends meet, while Rats addresses the same subject, as Newts sings: “Realise how it was all designed/To be just all for one, none for all.”
The standout track, for me, is Spiteful Age, which, at three and a half minutes, is the longest song here. It starts with a spoken-word narrative of all the fake things people seem to aspire to, before ramping up into a real angry rant which asks “which one of your 50 faces are you going to wear today?“
Shut It Out is the shortest song on All The Rage, and one of the best, a catchy ditty about shutting out the noise in life, while the closing Narci Bastard calls out the self-opinionated Wetherspoons (other bars are available, but it does seem to attract more than its fair share…) bores who love to share “another pearl of wisdom from the university of shite”.
This is an album which improves with every listen. Look out for live dates , and in the meantime, get your hands on this and play it loud. 8.5/10.
- All The Rage by Heed Case is available on digipack CD and vinyl (both limited to just 100 copies) direct from the band HERE, or you listen to it via the usual online streaming services.
