Opium Warlords
Strength! (2lp/black)
Opium Warlords, led by Sami Albert "Witchfinder" Hynninen (Reverend Bizarre, The Puritan, The Candles Burning Blue), return with their sixth album 'Strength!' It is a versatile but tight combination of pussy techno, sludge, industrial pop, hardcore punk, drone, shamanistic pulse, noise, heavy metal, old school gothic rock and march music. It is a take on European rhythmic patterns: stagnant factory beat - no groove, no swing, just a rhythm of industrialism that pierces through different genres and styles. Comparing to the dark and oppressive 'Nembutal' (2020), 'Strength!' is significantly more light-hearted, with its postmodern lyrics emitting from sources such as shampoo bottles and television UFO series to the Pan-Europa myth or morbid lore of death-hungry Transylvanian Iron Guard. However, the sting of irony and sarcasm is balanced with more serious subjects: 'Strength!' is a hate/love letter to Europe and a self-reflection on Machiavellian and Nietzschean philosophies of strength and elitism. True to the band's soul everything is covered with pure toxic misanthropy.