Crannk Reviews Drunktank - "Return Of The Infamous Four" album -

Drunktank are a 4 piece band from The Hague, Netherlands who formed around 2003, they have released 4 EP’s and an album titled ‘The Infamous Four‘ which is celebrating its 10 year anniversary on the 5th of March 2020. The album is being released on vinyl through Morning Wood Records and Sound Speed Records as well as a very limited edition of cassettes made by Trilob Records.Orders can be placed through the bands bandcamp or a PM. They will ship worldwide. Here’s a link. ..https://drunktankpunk.bandcamp.com/merch

Anyway, the band’s most recent album is titled ‘Return Of The Infamous Four‘ and was released in July 2019. It was mixed and mastered by Cedrick Forsberg (Blazon Stone, Rocka Rollas).

The first track is ‘We Want More’ (2:49) which starts off with some guitar riffage and leads into a melodic skatepunk style chord progression. Vocals are a familiar gang shouty type hardcore vibe with lyrical content that sits firmly in the political punk world singing about greed and the inability to learn from our poor decisions. It has some vocal harmony parts and is high energy. The lead guitar work is like a sprinkling of metal over the punky song. It ends with some typical skatepunk noise. It was the third single released before the album with the band making an official music video for the song which was released on the 11th of July 2019.

The other two singles lifted from the album befoŕe its release were ‘Waste Away‘ and ‘Hammer of Justice‘ in that order. I suggest watching the lyric videos in that order, they are presented in that comic animation style and I found it very entertaining.

The second song ‘Hammer of Justice‘ (4:04) starts with a very metal soundscape, the vocals enter around 40 seconds in and are delivered in a snarly punk way, at this point even the music has strong punk vibes but the drums are super heavy and help blur the line between the genres. By the end of the song its all-metal with squealing lead guitar.
The next song ‘Waste Away’ (2:51) has a small bass intro before the band all join in and play a fast skatepunk type progression with some metal inspired lead shred parts, towards the end of the verse it feels like it will change to a metal chorus but stays firmly in the punk realm. The song has an epic metal flavoured breakdown with some truly inspiring guitar squealing lead. There is a vocal solo that doesn’t last long, it leads back into the chorus part. I really like the way this song ending leads into the next track ‘Green Button‘ (2:39) which is a mixture of skatepunk and melodic hardcore with very little in the way of metal elements.
Hellraisers (3:47) is lyrically a battlecry for the weekend and is the first not so serious song on the album. Musically it starts off with metal vibes, lead guitar shred work with a double octave effect. The rest of the band is creating heavy distorted stabs that ring out to create more atmosphere. An amazing breakdown and build-up are a highlight of the soundscape.

At this point, the band starts including samples in a few songs. Track 6 ‘Courage of a Few‘ (3:52) starts with a sample from Charlie Chaplin’s speech from the finale of his 1941 film ‘The Great Dictator‘ and given the lyrical content the chosen sample is a great fit. This might be the best-written song on the album, it really is an inspiring onslaught.
Raising the Bar (2:32) is the shortest track on the album which seems ok cause its more of a punk song than a metal one. Its elements musically are pulled from skatepunk and melodic hardcore. Lyrically it’s about challenging yourself to be better and motivating yourself to do something.
The next song ‘Army of Darkness‘ (3:32) and its lyrically about the cult horror-comedy movie of the same name, while musically it blends elements of skatepunk and metal. You can feel the change in the songs at this point as they all lean slightly further towards metal. Track 9 ‘Darker Side‘ (3:47) offered up some great guitar riffs and shredding before leading into the final song ‘Return of the Infamous Four‘ (3:02).
Overall this album has a similar sound to its predecessor with its blending of the punk and metal genres, that said each song has a different mix of the two. Lyrically it’s a good mix of socially and environmentally aware political punk and entertaining songs about drinking, having fun with some snippets of film culture. I found it interesting to read in an interview that former band members contributed to the album with some songwriting and guest appearances, this band really is something special.

The band has a bunch of shows booked for 2020, here are some details
January 18: Lola (Eurosonic)- Groningen – Holland
February 8 – Le Prisme ASBL – Braine-L’alleud – Belgium
February 22 – Popcentrale – Dordrecht – Holland
February 29 – Popradar Winterfest – Den Haag – Holland
March 26 Sabot – Wiesbaden- Germany
March 27 Heizhaus – Nuremberg – Germany
March 28 Stumpf – Hannover – Germany
April 25 – Manchester Punk Fest – Manchester – United Kingdom
June 26 JH Wommel – Wommelgem – Belgium
August 8 – Brakrock – Duffel – Belgium