The Homeless Gospel Choir, This Land Is Your Landfill
Hassle Records

Protest punk – a genre that’s characteristically angry, vicious, and loud, right? Not so much – The Homeless Gospel Choir have been proving that stereotype wrong for years; their viciousness comes from the strength of the community they’ve created and the fiercely uplifting nature of the protest songs they write.

Latest cut Blind Faith, from next week’s record This Land Is Your Landfill, is characteristically optimistic sounding. Derek Zanetti’s puppy-dog sincere vocals, the cheery guitar riffs and gang vocals that chip in at the end – all contribute to the optimistic feel of the track. However, of course, all is not as it seems – it doesn’t take much attention to the lyrics to clock the venomous cynicism with which Zanetti handles his subject matter: the ‘blind faith’ of people following a religion (or social system) that is broken purely for comfort. The track provides a nuanced-yet-punchy look at accepting something twisted for the sake of not challenging the status quo; it’s thoughtful and outraged, and that’s everything a punk song should be.

This Land Is Your Landfill looks set to digress from THGC’s previous gearing towards the acoustic – the beauty of that, of course, was that Zanetti could pop up anywhere with one guitar and deliver a scorching set. TLIYL is louder, denser, and a fuller sound, but if all the tracks we’ve heard so far are anything to go by, Zanetti hasn’t sacrificed one shred of his emotional authenticity to make the leap. THGC have a core that’s so strong that they could make a pop album, a metal album, a mumble rap album, and it would still be unmistakeably them – we can’t wait to see what else is in store from TLIYL.

This Land Is Your Landfill is out April 24th.