With July just kicking off, I was combing things that came out in late June as well, and this one kinda stuck out to me. Admittedly, I’ve never listened to this band at all before today, but the combination of the band name and album name intrigued me. Given the current political climate after Roe v Wade was moronically overturned, I feel like this album might be more topical than even originally intended.

So for tiny context; Petrol Girls are a UK Punk band (now based in Austria) formed in about 2012 and named after the Pétroleuses, female arsonists, referencing the group of female supporters for the Paris Commune in 1871. With a name derived from a revolutionary mentality, playing punk and most likely having view in line with feminism…this could be one hell of a ride. Let’s find out!

Petrol Girls is: Ren Aldridge (guitar & vocals), Liepa Kuraite (bass & vocals), Joe York (guitar) & May Mansour (drums)

• Artist: Petrol Girls
• Album: Baby (2022)
• Label: Hassle Records
• Total Track Time: 34:00

Scraps an almost 30 second little instrumental/white noise open to give that off putting sonic dissonance feeling. Preachers gives me some reminiscent feelings of Million Dead but lyrically it is following the theme of people telling women what to do, and how to look/act without knowledge or real ramification. “Mr Sanctimony and his pony, Only know that one trick, Calls it liberation, mans his station, Never budges from it, Our mental exhaustion fuels their fortune, In the silicone pit”, equating how women are treated to a show pony is…pretty damn accurate and I just like this verse. Feed My Fire going for more of the frenetic spoken word open, and the clashing cacophonous aspects during the verse until a fairly melodic chorus before returning the ebb and flow of the jagged instrumentation. Giving the fact all the lyrical imagery is about fire, embers, ash, the erratic arrangement gives a good sonic picture of fire crackling, slowly building in that beautiful yet off time dance that it tends to do. This is really surprisingly cool, evocative and roped me in with relative ease.

Baby, I Had an Abortion, well look at this…yeah I was right to think there was topical content here. Yeah the pre-chorus here adjusts between the first and second, but it’s simple yet fantastic. “Whose life are you pro?, Whose do you want to control?, You want to come inside?, Tell me how I’m traumatized, Shame, shame, shame, Point your finger and cry, oh it’s a, Shame, shame, shame, That I’m not sorry, I’m not sorry”, the Pro-Choice sentiment is obvious here, the fact that antiquated moral and religious views are what people hinge on for Pro-Life is also a point they hit. I won’t go too far into any kind of breakdown cause this isn’t something I can relate to or speak on from the same perspective, I will just say that easy access to abortions should be a thing for those who need it and removing Pro-Choice is some Dark Ages retard shit. Clowns feel like a song about fence sitters. A lot of lines about the left and the right, but being snug as a bug in the middle. Sonically it’s interesting, but really seems to get more and more aggressive about fence sitters. Unsettle brings up vibes of growing older and just being content, but the main lyrics are fighting against the settling malaise that tends to sink in as we get older and fight less and less.

Fight for Our Lives is more of the riot rally spoken word into the megaphone before the chorus. Blaming mainstream media on continuing the narratives that get women and other marginalized groups murdered just because it’s the corporate accepted spin. It’s a simple request that no one should feel like the media is working against them to have them murdered while just trying to go out and enjoy their life. Violent by Design, no this is not Eric Young’s new theme song for his IMPACT! group. It’s a very, anti-police song. Which given how the last few years has dragged a lot of corruption to the forefront just in America, I can only imagine what the vibe is in Europe. I do really like this lyric though; “Oh, are they the good guys?, Are they the nation’s pride?, Always on the right side, The thin blue line is violent by design”. And before someone acts like the king of Moron Mountain, even the song acknowledges it’s “not all” of them; “How many bad apples, Till we look at the tree, Pull at its roots, Confront our history?”

One or the Other has lyrics that are comedic genius. Not comedic like laughably stupid, but it portrays everything that society throws at you, as a very binary answer. According to society, things can only be one or the other, they are mutually exclusive, which is an ignorant mentality to have in life; “Always one or the other, She’s a whore or she’s your mother, There are men and there are women, Now let’s enjoy our gender prison”, given their political views on a lot, this is very possibly a pro-trans song; but honestly it’s just pointing out of a lot of societal stupidity. I don’t think it needs to have a political affiliation since it just makes sense for logic, everything can’t be black and white.

Sick & Tired gives me a lot of Kittie vibes, and honestly this is more commentary on everything they already spoke about. Sick of excuses, having to defend choices and actions, sick of having to fight uphill for justice or basic equality, sick of how society as decomposed to this heap of garbage that it currently is. Bones is interesting since it really continues the Sick & Tired aspect of if you strip away the noise, they’re just bones. So the lyrics express frustration in continuing, if it’s worth it, what it all means…and the ending doesn’t exactly give a resurgence of hope. It does a good job at getting across the precarious position the life puts people in and the exhaustion that just envelops some people.

So to be honest, a lot of this is not my normal bag. Hardcore Punk was something I’m vaguely aware of, and that’s mostly thanks to my old college roommate Steve. I was really just intrigued by the songs, the dynamic of the band mixed with the musical delivery.

Let’s be honest with ourselves here, a lot of what is discussed in this album isn’t “Progressive” or “Feminist rhetoric”, it’s basic humans rights. People that want to cling to a fake book that’s over 2000 years old for guidance or misquote a piece of paper from nearly 250 years ago  really need to take a look in the mirror. These same people think that things that happened 30 or 40 years ago are outdated, yet you’re trying to validate your backwards belief with items that are older than any living human. Stop being a puppet.

As for the album? If you like Hardcore Punk this has a lot of great elements, even some more melodic moments, and maintains the punk spirit since they have a message worth saying. Give it a listen.

Final Judgment: 8.25/10