NO ONE IS INNOCENT: Frankenstein (HARD ROCK): review / opinion to read on Music Waves

It was in 1980. Ages ago. The oil crisis of 1973 had brought an end to the Trente Glorieuses. The young generation under Giscard was getting so bored and its future was getting darker while unemployment was ramping. The slap came up by surprise. Or rather the slap in the face. The kids took Trust's "Repression" straight in the face. With raging riffs, hard rock was putting words on their woes. Forty years later, in a hyper-connected world, young people are less bored. But their future is even bleaker. Rap has gradually embraced protest and revolt, often confusing rebellion with free verbal violence. But while hip hop is now celebrated at the Victoires de la Musique, the true descendants of Trust still play the guitar. Committed rock is still well and truly alive. Those who thought it was dying should give an ear to "Frankenstein", the new album of No One Is Innocent.

Already with "Propaganda", the French band had made a tremendous comeback on the French rock scene. After the Charlie attack, No One Is Innocent had yelled its rage and had taken back its weapon, the only one it can find: music. Three years later, their rage is still intact - in fact, it has been so since the band's creation twenty-five years ago. But the emotion has given way to questions. How could the international politics in the Middle East have created the 'Frankenstein' of which we are suffering the assault today? How to fight against 'The Revenants', "these young and lonely wolves, with their faith between their teeth" since "their paradise is our hell"? Kemar's texts, with their direct and efficient writing, tackle the subjects head on. This is the very essence of committed rock. No time to procrastinate, you have to react or die. For the Parisian combo, it is a question of musical survival.

And precisely, musically, "Frankenstein" is a real fireball. Endowed with a huge production and a tremendous mastering, the album is a succession of riffs like so many uppercuts in the soft underbelly of the hexagonal rock. The guitarists Shanka and Popy play with joy and strike left-handed jabs, sending the listener back into the ropes from the very first track ('A La Gloire Du Marché'). The match is completed in eleven rounds of maximum four minutes each during which our kings of the ring chain heavy rock tracks ('Ali', 'Teenage Demo'), indus rock ('Frankenstein'), alternative metal close to Rage Against The Machine ('Madking', 'Hold-Up'), psychedelic grunge ('Nous Sommes La Nuit') and vitamin punk ('What The Fuck'). The music sticks to the texts with a formidable precision, with as a climax the track 'Les Revenants' which symbolizes by itself the care with which the group has polished its seventh opus.

The album closes with a cover of Black Sabbath's 'Paranoid', a very successful tribute to the founding fathers of heavy metal and a relic of a past where our elders believed firmly that rock could change the world. No One Is Innocent wants to keep on believing. And listening to "Frankenstein", which has undoubtedly been the quintet's best album so far, we find ourselves also willing to believe in it. - Official website

NO ONE IS INNOCENT

FRANKENSTEIN

VERYCORDS

HARD ROCK