I thought the best way to start this little write up about the newest album from Conflict, a decade on from their last, would be to quote the first verse of the title track. It says so much about what this album does and means to the band and more likely to their followers.

“And so it begins, it’s time again

The start of a new beginning

Is this the beginning of the end, the end of what?

Or what the fuck are they saying?

Our fight for life just to survive

Shall we just obey and slave?

While we wallow in their shit, day after day”

‘This Much Remains’ as a title alone, gives us all a taste of what is to come, it’s a band looking back at what they have done and why, but then moving forward. A setting out on a path well travelled with new momentum and renewed vigour.  After all this is a band that, have in their time influenced many, and fought many more wrongs too. So does this album still hold as much angst and vigour for fighting and standing up for the voiceless, does it still have that need to be heard above the noise as before. The simple answer is yes!. With songs like ‘The Collusion Exclusion’ which still has that 80’s sense of questioning everything about it, and in ‘This Much Remains’ both Colin & Fiona’s vocal bounce off each other like the hauntings of Crass.

‘Masters Of The Race’ stands out prominently for its, in the modern of now calling out of those “world leaders” who take the stage to divide and conquer the many. Two of the biggest high points on this album though, have to be the wonderfully dubbed up ‘Statement Of Intent’, and the animal liberation song ‘A Mother’s Milk’, which begs the question, is this still then just an album of very similar intention to previous Conflict albums, or just simply a statement of “we are back, we will never be downtrodden”, or could this be their reanimation album?

Conflict, will and always have been a band of great reverence on the punk scene, this album just catapults them right back to where they belong.

Out today, head HERE to listen and buy

The post Conflict – This Much Remains appeared first on ThePunkSite.com.