When The Revolution Comes, Everything Will Be Beautiful

With the current, searing political climate in Madison, The United Sons Of Toil couldn’t have picked a better time to drop a sonic a-bomb on capitalism in the form of When The Revolution Comes, Everything Will Be Beautiful. USOT’s latest effort treats the listener like Alex DeLarge, strapping them into a chair and subjecting them to some of the darkest pages of recent history, ears open and eyes peeled, as crashing rhythms from drummer Jason Jensen and a rumbling melodic backbone from bassist Bill Borowski reinforce vocalist-guitarist Russell Hall’s well-sourced lyrics and jarring guitar screams.

Opening track “Alcoholism In The Former Soviet Republics” sets the mood of crushing anger, and alludes to the rise of alcoholism and suicide that paralleled the rise of capitalism in Eastern Europe after the Soviet Union crumbled in 1991. “Clean off the bare shelves / Your leaders fail / Question the locked doors / Young skin’s too pale!” shouts Hall as each syllable channels the furious energy of classic DC hardcore. The intro to the following tune, “Overturning The Rumford Fair Housing Act,” momentarily lets the smoke clear with a dash of feedback and fuzzed out bass guitar before fully breaking into its raw emotional crawl of jagged chords and trudging drum-work, channeling Diary-era Sunny Day Real Estate meeting up to chuck bricks through the windows of the Capitol.

The second half of When The Revolution summons a couple of its bleakest and most punishing moments. “The Contrition Of The Addict” (which references the abduction and political crippling of former president of Honduras Manuel Zelaya) and “State-Sponsored Terrorism” (which according to Hall, was inspired by the 2009 settlement freeze in Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories) feature buzzing guitar and growling bass guitar aligning perfectly with Jensen’s sledgehammer pulse for skull-rattling syncopation. The dynamic shifts between sonic discord and fractured melodies, as the songs pour out in monolithic emotional cascades and USOT’s unfiltered passion bears down, sometimes threatening to break the listener. But The Sons should be celebrated as an ally—the real deal, particularly in a time when so many Wisconsinites are beginning to “question the locked doors.”

USOT celebrate the new release (with opener CONTROL) at the Project Lodge on March 5.