Social Distortion.
London band Djevara come out fighting with their album 'Third World War: Cast the first stone'. The band describe themselves as punk rock, who draw their influences from that genre as well as metal, alternative/independent rock with some ethnic roots thrown in there as an extra. These are valid descriptions, and there are certainly others that can be seen, like in the first song, 'Third World War' which has fuzzy guitars a little like Fu-Manchu, but it's wrapped up in a sound that is more post-hardcore than anything else, whereas songs like the greatly titled 'The Death Of Cliff Richard' nod more towards some earlier Fugazi , then there is the thoughtful, 'Autism'.
The band take a stand around many political issues such as Human Rights and Civil Liberties, and one of the strongest is the ongoing fight against racism the differences between the colours within music. The band is of course led by the dark-skinned hero, Bass who plays guitar as well as singing/screaming, so this isn't just a random cause that the band has decided to jump on the bandwagon with, but something that is more closer to home. Next the song 'Moth To The Flames' has some great drum beats which have thick guitar riffs over the top, before the vocals scream in.
Most of the songs here are quite long apart from the quick sharp jabs of the punk rock that is, 'The Consumer'. Later we have a gentle start to 'Six Hundred Years Of Your Civilization And My
People Still Live In Poverty' before it builds up into a screamo frenzy with riffs so thick they could keep an Eskimo warm for months. What we see here are song filled with passion and is probably what you would get if Rage Against The Machine sung instead of rapped and had the guitarist from Fu-Manchu playing. We do get some cross over rap/metal in 'Film At Eleven' and it's about as good as you can get as Djevara don't try to over play the metal backbeat and so it remains a simple song musically in the verses relying on chunking funky bass lines, whilst the guitar tinkers out slight melodies until being unleashed for the chorus. It's a close run thing as to whether this is in fact a stronger direction than the more post hardcore, but perhaps that's me also falling victim to the charges of racial stereotype, and with that said it's a good seed that they have planted. Later we have the large chunky riffs of 'Chapter Two' that play the record out.
All in all we have an experimental band that have the true DIY punk mentality with great social awareness and a wondrous appetite for good causes, whilst musically they are diverse and not scared to branch out through different genres to get their message across. I good follow up to 2004's 'God Is White', this should give Dejevara a more solid foundation within the rock world.