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This
one sure takes me back to the motherland, as Peligro Social
(literally translates to Social Danger)hails from the San Francisco Bay Area but deliver their brand of
energetic punk rock in Spanish. Everything is sort of right
here and I am actually quite glad that the English speaking
press seems to have embraced Peligro Social and have overlooked
the so-fucking difficult language barrier, which I must add,
seems to be only an obstacle to native English speakers.
Elsewhere in the world, even those whose only English word is
‘mother’ or ‘pizza’ or ‘fuck’ embrace music sung in English.
Yeah, Britney Spears is huge everywhere. Anyway, found at least
three pieces in which the writers made public their regret for
having overlooked Peligro Social in the past. And I can’t blame
them. No Religion is that good and crude. Despite the
language differences, the message is not lost here, at least
apparently. Because if we leave it up to the music, then Peligro
Social should be more than capable to compete with any English,
Chinese, Flemish, Czech, Quechua, Aymara, Lithuanian, Icelandic,
Slovac or Mongolese speaking band. Peligro’s Social’s brand of
melodic punk is of the in your face kind; blazing riffs swiftly
bypass the violence chicanery of hardcore, melodic guitar lines
accentuate the work of some classics (instrumental “El Comienzo”
– “The Beginning”), while vocalist Jose drops lines fastly with
his throat and much appreciated soul, distancing their sound
from the most accessible work of radio friendly punk rockers.
The title of
the record, No Religion, works both ways, in English and
Spanish quite expletive meaning the same. And at the band’s
lyrical content there are common themes, which the band is kind
enough to go into detail in the liner notes in English; like
“Todos a la Mierda” (loosely translated to ‘Everyone to Shit”)
which is ‘a funny song about being a filthy rotter, eat
buggers and masturbate...’. Or the more serious title track
which is about ‘the influence of religion in our courts, our
military, our government, our schools, we can’t avoid it,
religion is only an excuse to make us fight for our countries
and the people in control. There is no separation between church
and state, ‘in god we trust’, we will not speak it, we will not
hear it, we will not read it.’ So there we got a little bit
of something for everyone here. Even if they don’t understand
it. As a music fan who rarely pays attention to lyrics, I was
quite entertained by Peligro Social’s lyrical approach. Nothing
new, true, but is also a nice balance the band finds between the
lighter subjects, the social critique, their accessible frenetic
sound and the easy melodies. Some of it reminds me of Los
Violadores, an old Argentinian punk band who back in 1986 put
out the super classic, Y Ahora Que Pasa, Eh?, which I
highly recommend, and which, if you are going to take my word
for it, you should make sure to get the original recording and
not the band’s rehash of their classics, which strips the whole
thing from the guts out.
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