PLATOON 1107- Day of Anger (Parts1-4)

I must admit, I’m late to the Platoon 1107 party. I’d heard of them and had a song or two on compilations, but hadn’t really dug into their material. When I had the chance to review Part 4 of their Day of Anger series, I gratefully accepted with a small amount of trepidation, having not heard parts 1-3. So even though they’ve been released over the span of the past year, I’m reviewing them here all at once.

Let me start by simply saying, Wow! Having expected pop-punk (for some unknown reason), I was pleasantly at the hardcore punk and post-hardcore sounds coming out the speakers. This reminds me a lot of Barabbas-era The Blamed, but is also not too far off of Refused/Shape of Punk to Come, and other projects that melt various genres into a cohesive whole. Even fans of heavier stuff like Botch or Training for Utopia might enjoy this, though admittedly this is not quite as heavy sonically as those artists.

Christian punk can sometimes be fairly black and white, run of the mill in regard to lyrical subjects, but this was another refreshing surprise. Written around the concept of the loss of one’s father, and the struggles that arise from such situations, the series of EPs (the totality of the project amounts to 44 minutes

of music) tackles issues of faith, doubt, a disdain for platitudes, questions about authenticity, the reliability of scripture—or at least our understanding of it, and also a heavy critique of church culture. No, this is not a comfortable listen, nor is it a ‘safe’ one.