Review ANTI-FLAG ‘Lies They Tell Our Children’

Anti-Flag is without a doubt one of the most established punk rock bands in the USA. It was Justin Sane and Pat Theric who founded the band in 1988. From the very beginning Anti-Flag combined the boisterous sound of punk rock with a straightforward attitude. Throughout the years, the band has stood up against war in all its forms, has pointed out social injustices, and has exposed the downside of capitalism to society. This earned the band a lot of respect, but also led to controversial discussions when the band signed a record deal with the major label RCA.

After the group released their ’20/20′ album in 2020, the pandemic put a brake on live performances and touring. This left more time to focus on songwriting, tracks that are now featured on ‘Lies They Tell Our Children’.

Also on their 13th studio album Justin Sane and Co. remain true to themselves and also succeed in giving space to innovations. ‘Lies They Tell Our Children’ is a concept album and in addition, the musicians have invited some guests. Both benefit the new album. Thematically, Anti-Flag focuses on two of the most important topics of this time – health care and the protection of the environment. For this, the band did their own research to get to the root of the causes and repeatedly ended up with humanity’s greed for profit as the basic evil. This describes the common thread of the album which is then wrapped up in a musical framework that sounds quite attractive.

It starts with ‘Sold Everything’, a smooth beginning that slowly gains power and increases but does not reflect all the full anger. It gets heavier with ‘Modern Meta Medicine’. The band is joined on this song by Killswitch Engage’s Jesse Leach which gives the track an extra punch.

The anarchic side of punk rock comes through on ‘The Fight of Our Lives’. Tim McIlrath (Rise Against) and Brian Baker (Bad Religion) were invited as guests and do their part to create a melodic yet critical punk anthem.

That punk rock is an international community is evident in ‘Victory Or Death (We Gave ‘Em Hell)’ which features Campino from German punk rock legends Die Toten Hosen. Leaning on the British roots of punk, the song is immediately catchy without being a commercial one. A good punch, that’s also what characterizes ‘Work & Struggle’.

Anti-Flag manage on their new album once again to connect anger and melody in such a way that their music reaches a wide audience and thus the message is also heard beyond the usual bubble; and hopefully makes people think’.

Lies They Tell Our Children’ has become a typical Anti-Flag album and yet it is the new elements that give this longplayer that certain something extra. Those who have always liked the band will also love this album and all others should definitely take a listen to one or the other song, it’s worth it.

Tracklist:

Sold Everything
Modern Meta Medicine (feat. Jesse Leach of Killswitch Engage)
Laugh. Cry. Smile. Die. (feat. Shane Told of Silverstein)
The Fight Of Our Lives (feat. Tim McIlrath of Rise Against and Brian Baker of Bad Religion)
Imperialism (feat. Ashrita Kumar of Pinkshift)
Victory Or Death (We Gave ‘Em Hell) (feat. Campino of Die Toten Hosen)
The Hazardous
Shallow Graves (feat. Tré Burt)
Work & Struggle
NVREVR (feat. Stacey Dee of Bad Cop/Bad Cop)
Only In My Head