Jesus Skins Nazareth
Unser Kreuz braucht kein Haken (2002)
Mitch Clem
I'm pretty sure Scott sent me this to review as a joke. I mean, come ON, a Christian oi band from Germany? I'll bet he figured he'd hear some fine comedy in the way of me ripping these guys a new one.
Unfortunately, not even a jaded, cynical bastard like myself can withstand the awesome force of what is simply good rock music, and so I have mostly good things to say about this slab o' vinyl.
Sorry, Scott.
The Jesus Skins play yer basic melodic streetpunk oi stuff, with alternating anthemic and growling vocals. Nothing too groundbreaking as far as style is concerned. This is still very Business-influenced, very melodic, very gruff… You know, something to slam in a pit to and pump your fist in the chorus. But it's pretty listenable as far as this sort of thing goes. And I guess the fact that all the lyrics are in German is good, because this is a Christian band, and I really have no desire to listen to lyrics telling me how cool God is, ya know?
I can't really think of much else to say about this. If you're into German Christian skinhead streetpunk (they are apparently anti-Nazi, so, while I can't read the lyric sheets, I doubt they're saying anything too offensive [unless you really hate Christians for some reason]), this is for you. If you like oi at all, really, this album is a lot better than I thought it would be when I saw it in the mail. Very catchy.
Just make up your own lyrics, I guess.
Mitch