The United Sons Of Toil - When The Revolution Comes, Everything Will Be Beautiful (Phratry)

Coming on like a tighter-wound and slightly metallicized Shellac wrasslin' with Today Is The Day, these three Wisconsin-based glorious revolutionaries are steeped in nineties Amphetamine Reptile-brand scuzz and were clearly raised at the very knee of Madison, Wisconsin's own Killdozer, another band who were rather fond of left-wing ideology and paid frequent lip-service to, and took visual cues from, the rhetoric and propaganda of the former USSR.

Of course, Killdozer were tongue in cheek in their appropriation of Communist party art and sloganeering, but The United Sons Of Toil are the real deal – anarcho-syndicalists, men who get their hands dirty with good, honest toil and lefty pinkoes one and all.

The afore-mentioned manifesto is part of an eleven page set of liner notes included with the album, detailing the meaning behind each song, complete with literary references and footnotes, and an outlining of the eerily prescient conceptual story behind When The Revolution Comes, Everything Will Be Beautiful....a political concept noiserock album?

Yes indeed, and just call The United Sons Of Toil Nostradami, as the concept is as follows...

“The story is one of an oppressed and hopeless people. Pushed to the brink by corruption
and squalid, inequitable conditions, they resort to violence. As they struggle, they convince
themselves that their violence is justified and, in fact, that they have no other choice...”

...sound familiar? Spooky.

The United Sons Of Toil, over the course of this album, do not let up, musically or ideologically. A 'no retreat, no surrender' attitude in full effect. Taut, bristling with aggressive discord and stop-on-a-dime tight, the trio writhe and jerk their way through obliquely-named tracks such as 'Alcoholism in the Former Soviet Republics', 'Overturning the Rumford Fair Housing Act' and 'ILO Convention 169', all the while yelling hoarse rhetoric over the Jesus Lizard-at-Neurosis-intensity racket unfurling around them. All three members pitch in vocally, creating several differing vocal textures with only aggression and tension being the defining qualities.
Although there is no musical relenting, that doesn't mean that the music on display is monotonous. The band fully utilise dynamic tension and release, and throw in other sounds in order to open out the palette of the trio set up, such as the choppy organ on 'Sword Of Damocles' and their use of more psychedelic guitar tones in order to lighten the oppressive tone throughout the record as a whole.

Sincere, blistering and enlightening, The United Sons Of Toil are driven men with a glorious plan and something they feel is important to share with the masses. Their music and message is one that some may not enjoy, but all should hear.