The Lads – Counterculture

Contra Records

 

Are you still wishing that the lads were here… there, or wherever the fuck you are? Well, looks like your wish is coming true! Because The Lads are here, loud and clear and the boys from Freiburg, Germany just released their debut full-length “Counterculture” for Contra Records! Time for a review, right? Right!

 

Formed in 2016, The Lads is still a young, new band and that is something you definitely hear back on “Counterculture”. Full of ‘hate and anger’, this ‘realpunk’ (Oi! for insiders) outfit produces raw, rowdy and – indeed – real anthems that could have easily been recorded in the 80’s or early 90’s as well. No mess (well, I can imagine a lot of beer and blood being spilled during a live set of The Lads), no fuss, just a crude, but at the same time extremely catchy, sound! Pure impact, baby!

 

The music, the vocals – it’s all angry as fuck, suiting the (mostly) pissed off message just perfectly on tracks like “The Lads”, “Hate And Anger”, “No Regrets”, “The Purge”, “They Got You”, “What Makes Me Sick” and “Worker Bees”. Yes, all songs are in English and yes, vocalist Konninger has an accent – now unless your band is called Oxymoron, the reason why I usually prefer my German Oi! and punk auf Deutsch –but when brought with a hateful passion and enthusiasm it doesn’t bother me. With The Lads’ sound it doesn’t bother me.

 

Rough, boisterous and sing-along after sing-along – the way it should be! The Lads are making skinhead great again and “Counterculture” is the soundtrack to it all!