ALBUM REVIEW: Burning Flag – Matador (Hell Hath No Fury Records/Phobia Records)
Burning Flag formed in Halifax in 2014, and their blend of punk noise, ’90s hardcore and industrial riffing quickly made them rising stars.
They’ve played with the likes of Discharge, Subhumans, GBH, Agnostic Front and Warwound, but have a sound distinctly their own.
It’s dense, based around a bludgeoning backbeat, more metal than punk at times, and thoroughly addictive if hard and heavy is your thing.
They’ve come a long way from the raw promise of their self-titled 2015 debut and slicker second album Izabel (2017).
Touring throughout the UK, as well as playing Download, Rebellion and Manchester Punk Festival, has honed their sound.
Momentum stalled when frontwoman Ange had to quit in 2019 due to vocal problems, and Burning Flag considered calling it a day.
Happily they found the ideal replacement in new vocalist Holly, who is already steeped in the DIY punk scene.
As well as promoting gigs and running Hell Hath No Fury Records, she’d wielded the mic for Bristol garage-punks Kiss Me Killer.
They used lockdown to write and record their third album, and Holly settled in so well you can hardly spot the join.
The first material with her at the helm came on Christmas Day, when they shared the single Eat The Rich, released at the same time as the Queen’s Speech.
A tasty appetiser for what was to follow, the lead single isn’t even the best track on Matador. Far from it.
Opener Thrown Out lulls you into a false sense of security before erupting into a raging hardcore rant about hate speech.
Man Up, which follows next, addresses toxic masculinity, with Jonesy (guitar), Mark (bass) and Matt (drums) really hitting their stride.
The brooding Ghost Skin slows things down a little, but conversely lifts things up a notch, with some huge riff. Then latest single Broken Britain sees Holly and Jonesy trading vocals to excellent effect as they demand: “What? Future, do we face?/When we’re swayed by hate.”
The juddering title track, likening life’s struggles to a bullfight, sees Holly’s vocals shine in her passionate delivery.
Toxic By Design, clocking in at less than two minutes, is faster, angrier and sees Burning Flag at full throttle as they tackle climate change.
Standout track
Eat The Rich keeps the unbridled fury going, while Vendetta is a message of female empowerment against oppressive regimes.
There’s not a bad track here, but the best is yet to come; Step Back is the standout song in an album full of them
It will have moshpits slamming as Holly spits: “Take your religious politics/Keep the fuck away from me/Bigoted, far-right misogynist/Step back and listen, get on your fucking knees!”
A song about the government’s mishandling of the pandemic was inevitable, and it comes with the closing All The While.
A sludgy seven-minute epic, it ends with soundbites asking who’s accountable for thousands of needless deaths.
Burning Flag’s trajectory was already an upward one before fate intervened. Now, after the enforced layoff, they’re ready to blow us all away when it’s safe to gig again. 8/10.
