First Attack are an Oi! band from Vancouver, Canada. The band is a project centred around Greg Huff, featuring members of Bishops Green, Alternate Action, The Enforcers, Subway Thugs and The Buzzers. Their debut album, released last year, earned the band a solid reputation on the scene, appeared on plenty of personal best-of-the-year lists and even led to a European tour. Their second album, More Sorrow, builds on that successful start and has been released through the well-established cooperation between Longshot Music for the US and Canada (red vinyl) and Try And Stop Me Records for Europe (blue vinyl). It features eight songs, excellent artwork and all the lyrics. That’s enough of the essential facts – let’s get down to the music itself.
I have quite a few records in my collection that Greg Huff has been involved with throughout his musical career. Starting with Glory Stompers, where you can clearly see the gradual evolution from punk to Oi!, both musically and visually. His later work with Subway Thugs, The Lancasters, Alternate Action and Bishops Green shows how his songwriting gradually developed and settled into the style we know so well today. The projects he has been involved in have developed a fairly distinctive sound. It usually moves at a mid-tempo pace, features plenty of singalong parts and, above all, carries a strong sense of melancholy that makes Greg’s musical signature instantly recognisable. It’s not just about the melodies themselves, but also the way the songs are structured and how they manage to combine the energy of streetpunk with a certain sense of nostalgia and melancholy. And that’s exactly what I enjoy about his music.
More Sorrow follows precisely this path and feels like a natural continuation of the first LP. It’s an extremely enjoyable record that never gets boring, and after a few listens it really gets under your skin. First Attack’s greatest strengths are their powerful melodies and memorable choruses, which work perfectly without the need for complicated arrangements. What Greg started developing with his distinctive songwriting style in Alternate Action, then refined in Bishops Green, he is now putting to full use in First Attack. You can hear the experience of someone who knows exactly what kind of sound he wants to create and how to write a song that grabs the listener straight away. At the same time, he’s not desperately trying to reinvent the wheel. He builds on tried-and-tested ideas but manages to give them an identity of their own.
In my opinion, this project is among the very best you can currently find on the Oi! scene. Lyrically, the album matches its melancholic musical atmosphere, carrying a strong sense of defiance against society, frustration and personal experience. It’s precisely the combination of these themes with the melodic sound that creates the atmosphere so characteristic of First Attack. This isn’t the kind of straightforward, aggressive Oi! that tries to overwhelm the listener with speed or sheer heaviness. Its strength lies in the melodies, the emotions and its ability to get inside your head. And that’s where these songs stay long after the record has stopped playing.
More Sorrow will once again appeal mainly to fans of the more melodic side of streetpunk and Oi!. The new material follows smoothly in the footsteps of the debut and is at least as memorable as last year’s record. Personally, I was surprised by how quickly the second album followed the debut, especially considering that the band managed to squeeze in a European tour in between. On the other hand, looking at the quality of material Canadian Oi! and streetpunk bands have been putting out lately, I have to say that the scene over there has set the bar pretty damn high.
TOP TRACKY: Don’t Tell Us, More Sorrow, Another Story
