Dayglo Abortions
Hate Speech
Unrest Records
Released January 11, 2022
One of Canada’s elder punk rock statesmen, Dayglo Abortions, return with a new record called Hate Speech – for better of for worse.
There was a time where I would have considered Dayglo Abortions one of the greater bands around. 1991’s Two Dogs Fucking is perhaps one of the greatest Crossover records of all time, and songs such as Proud To Be A Canadian, off of the Feed Us A Fetus album, was one of the most played songs played in my basement as a teenager. At the time, I dug their tongue-in-cheek humor and witty lyrics, crass album titles and covers and often had a good laugh at their lyrical content. They were good fun, and perfect for sneaky beers with friends while underaged.
The album starts off with a scathing punk rock anthem called White People – which takes aim at the evil white man. How original. This feels like a desperate attempt to remain relevant – and sadly is the best track on the record. God Is Love feels like an out-take from Gwar’s Scumdogs Of The Universe recording sessions, one that was rightly cut from the record. What the point of this was – is beyond me. Sociopath is a pretty good, raw slab of crossover, ripe with aggression, interesting lyrics and simple yet catchy guitar work.
From here on in, it feels like the end of the night – the end of the party, when the only beer that’s left is warm and the only people that are still going are the coked-out and highly annoying ones. Where you’re desperately trying to find any reason to make your exit and get the fuck out of dodge.
See Also: Scarecrow “Raise The Death’s Head” Review
After forty-odd years as a band, I’m not sure if singing about toilet humor and other crass topics, in a vain attempt at humor is a good thing or just plain sad. I’m leaning towards the latter. Singing about shit and assholes, very edgy. Unfortunately, the strong moments this record does have are ruined by the childness and pointlessness of such stupid lyrics. It isn’t lost on me, that Dayglo Abortions have always tried to push the envelopes and upset people, with album titles like Two Dogs Fucking or Feed Us A Fetus, but if you have to resort to songs like What’s For Breakfast, with lyrics such as “I’ll lick the poo right out of your bum” – it’s probably time to hang up the guitar and rethink things a little.
Still, there are positives we need to talk about too. Not many, though. At the end of the day Dayglo Abortions make me feel far more proud to be a Canadian than Justin fucking Trudeau does. It might just be a case of remembering the good times and ignoring stuff like this that really didn’t need to be recorded. The Dayglo Abortions are long going to be remembered as a legendary Canadian punk band – but Hate Speech puts them into that creepy uncle stage, and nobody needs that.
If you want to buy the record, you’re going to have to do a bit of work to get it. It seems that there isn’t a physical version of Hate Speech to be found. No records, no Compact Discs. There isn’t even a digital version you can grab, instead there is a collection of singles that you need to buy one at a time, in what is most defiantly a pain in the ass. So, if you want to do that, you can do so right over here. Good luck to you, brave soul.
For Fans Of: Gwar, D.O.A, SNFU
Track Listing:
01. White People
02. Kill Kill Kill
03. God Is Love
04. Smart Food
05. Sacks Of Meat
06. Sociopath
07. What’s For Breakfast
08. World Of Hate
09. Raised On Chest Milk
10. Calling All People
