Formed by Cretin/Citizen mastermind Matthew Widener, Liberteer is the grindcore equivalent to the folk-Viking metal movement in Europe. Right. He’s taking back what’s his/ours.
Amidst uncompromising blasts of anarcho-crust-punk-pissedasfuck whatever (a Napalm Death-Discharge Molotov cocktail birthed in nastiest defiles of Every City, USA), Liberteer throws down like it’s 1776. By using/integrating military march music and (perhaps) roots music of the Appalachians, it’s fair to say that Widener’s putting the “anti” in American. The gutter-home charge vs. triumphant stroll in recently occupied/now liberated minds is certainly a strange juxtaposition, but it works.
“My thoughts on politics slowly changed over the past six years,” explains Widener in a recent press release. “In Citizen I had a sense of outrage about our government, but because it still supported the idea of state, it doesn’t make much sense to me now. I’ve come to embrace the ideas of anarchy. The old band name, Citizen, represents a system of exclusion and nationalism, things I can’t stand now, so I had to rename the band and change a lot of things. I think the good things about the music are still there—the thematic, major-key riffs, the d-beats and blasts—but the message is now pure.”
Check out “Build No System”.
Liberteer – Build No System by Decibel Magazine
** Liberteer’s new album, Better to Die on Your Feet Than Live on Your Knees, is slated for a January 2012 release on Relapse Records. Order it HERE.