May 25 2017

Review – Psycho Melodic Kill Switch’s ‘ They Don’t Care – Future Sold’

While the independent music scene has been rife with political discourse since 2016’s Brexit and US election, there have been few artists as prolific or aggressive in their critique of that landscape than the Saudi Arabia-based outfit Psycho Melodic Kill Switch. They’ve lobbed mortars at Donald Trump, Theresa May, the British government, and just about every other right-leaning populist movement in that arena. In the wake of May’s early snap general election, however, the band is back with a bold new statement.

Psycho Melodic Kill Switch’s new track, ‘They Don’t Care – Future Sold,’ houses some of the band’s most passionate lyricism to date. Essentially standing as a call to arms for youth who don’t vote, the track implores Brits to pay closer attention to a future that, they argue, Theresa May and the Conservative Party in the UK are slowly destroying. While repetitive, it’s a punk rock anthem of defiance that gets its point across well.

To this effect, there are several lyrical gems in ‘They Don’t Care.’ At one point Psycho Melodic Kill Switch says that the UK has become the fifty-first state, firing an indirect shot over at the US and its political strife. In another line, the band says that May doesn’t “give a frack” about global warming – clever wordplay, there.

There are also times where the lyrics of ‘They Don’t Care’ fall flat. The chorus is a bit awkwardly structured and feels like a mouthful to chant in the punk-esque fashion that PMKS is trying to, and there are some bizarre lines, like a lyric where the band argues May is trying to keep black people out of the country. The primary social issue is people of Middle Eastern descent. (Not to say black people in Britain don’t experience difficulties with a conservative government, but it’s not a hotbed topic like Islamophobia.)

Thus, there are some fine ideas at play here. As always, the message Psycho Melodic Kill Switch is putting out there is very much worth having a conversation about. Their keen political awareness is always refreshing and will always be very needed, too.