Billy Talent - BillyTalent II

Thu 20th Jul, 2006 in Music Reviews

In true Hollywood style, Canadian punks Billy Talent have followed up their self-titled debut album with Billy Talent II. Can Billy Talent III РBilly Talent meets Scooby Doo be far away? Fortunately, the clich̩d title of the album is completely at odds with the exciting and challenging musical explosion contained within.

Since their 2003 album, Billy Talent have produced music that is both incendiary and disquieting. Reluctant to fit into the three-chord pop-punk trend, Billy Talent’s guitarist Ian D’Sa produces sharp, aggressive guitar riffs drenched in classic metal distortion, then quickly shifts down a few gears to understated clean verse fills. Like legendary punk band Refused, Billy Talent know exactly how to contrast burning punk fire against simple sounds to increase the impact of the explosive passages.

Singer Ben Kowalewicz provides an excellent foil to the guitar of D’Sa, with an uncommon voice that is capable of shifting rapidly between a shrill bark and a droning baritone. Between the guitars of D’Sa and Kowalewicz’s vocals, Billy Talent are not the sort of band many people would take to with ease: the sounds are harsh and unusual, immediately distinct from the standard screamo palette. Strange though they may be, it is a taste well worth acquiring, especially in light of their new album.

Always fond of the odd shout-along chorus, the lyrics on previous Billy Talent recordings were fairly cliché emo/screamo fare, which detracted slightly from the overall appeal and long-term value. On Billy Talent II, the quality of the lyrics has risen dramatically. While Wordsworth, Keats and the like have nothing to fear, the attention to detail and depth is immediately apparent.

Moving on from tracks like Nothing to Lose from their debut, which was disappointingly formulaic and angst-ridden, Billy Talent have discovered lyrical devices like simile, allegory and allusion. This offers much greater ambiguity and hence replay value to their work, and provides more room for exploration. The opening track, ‘Devil in a Midnight Mass’, hints at the betrayal of trust by a priest in the form of an unspecified abuse; ‘Worker Bees’ is a metaphorical polemic on the growing pressure to toe the line, both politically and socially.

Though they’re not quite competing with master lyricists like Bright Eyes or Bob Dylan, Billy Talent have shown themselves to be capable of greater things than the masses of cut-and-paste screamo bands that have popped up like toadstools after rain.

Adding value to the lyrics of each song is a small painting, one for each track, on the reverse side of the liner notes. ‘Devil in a Midnight Mass’ has a dark image in which a figure casts a shadow into a room where a young boy hides; the painting for Fallen Leaves is similarly menacing, showing a wicked-limbed tree reaching out of the night towards a bowing figure. ‘Where is the Line?’, a song about pretence and fashionable music genres, is matched with an image of ranked “Indie-Cred Fred” action figures.

Billy Talent II is by no means perfect, nor will it be a Top 40 hit, but it is indisputably worth hearing, both for fans of the band and for anyone who wants an album to challenge their ears.