(((O))) : Tyranny Is Tyranny – Let It Come From Whom It May

Tyranny Is Tyranny labels themselves as “post-noiserock”, which is the latest addition, in my book at least, of the post-X genre classification. Regardless of what people make of this, Tyranny Is Tyranny produced one of this year’s highlights in the noiserock community with their album Let It Come From Whom It May. Two of its members (Russell Emerson Hall and Jason Jensen) used to be in The United Sons Of Toil, a band with the similar philosophy as Tyranny Is Tyranny, namely producing heavy sludge-inspired noiserock with a deep political message: the dismantling of capitalism.

Song titles such as 'Manufacturing Truth', ‘The American Dream Is A Lie’ and ‘Always Stockholm, Never Lima’ speak for themselves really, but for who is interested in the deeper political underlying message the band actually uploaded a picture on their bandcamp page (see bottom of this post) with detailed explanations of each song. This also includes a quote by Howard Zinn, adding to the choice of the band name that is inspired by Howard Zinn’s “A People’s History of the United States”, it being the title of the fourth chapter in that book. So, this band has thought very well about the lyrical component and message in their music.

Musically Tyranny Is Tyranny ticks a lot of genre boxes on Let It Come From Whom It May. There is the already mentioned noiserock, but there are parts on this 7-track album where it sounds more hardcore/punk, scream, slightly sludge and overall very poppy. What stands out for the most is the recurrent use of melody and the quality of song writing. This album focuses on dynamics and repetition and by doing so the band managed to create some catchy lyrical and musical hooks that get stuck in your head for days to come.  By sharing the vocal duties between 3 members (already mentioned Russell and Jason and M. Guy Ficcioto) they create a lot of emotion in their songs, adding to the brilliantly played musical dynamics in the songs.

There isn’t a particular song I want to highlight as this is one of those albums you just need to listen to from the beginning to the end. Each song builds upon the previous song and after a couple of listens Let It Come From Whom It May actually gets better and better each time, demonstrating the quality of the song writing. This is basically a very good noiserock album mixing in little bits of heavier and poppier elements, and it makes you think about what’s wrong with the world as well, if you’re interested in the lyrical components and explanations as well.

Let It Come From Whom It May is available through the band’s bandcamp page as a “name your price” download or on CD, but a very well-deserved vinyl release is planned through Cincinnati's Phratry Records soon as well.