Hanging out in the Cincy punk scene, there were always a few older punks that, having come to age during the heyday of Ronnie “Unionbuster” Reagan, stubbornly associate authentic punk angst with having resisted those early neoliberal policies. Their logic went that if a punk band didn’t target Reagan, they were a bunch of posers and nobody listens to posers hence you only listen to Discharge, Amebix, Nausea, etc. Members of Municipal Waste and Darkest Hour have come together here in an odd sort of take on the retro thrash shtick: not only do they steal Nuclear Assault’s riffs but they steal their historical content from twenty five years ago as well? Most of these guys were only kids at the height of Reagan so how can this be anything but the most hip anachronistic appropriation of a bygone era?

MuniWaste’s standard humorous shtick gets serious here, grappling with real political content in how economic dispossession and strife similar to the ‘80s has resurfaced. Foresta’s lyrics take on a rather bleak tone in depicting contemporary results of repression and violence. In taking on Regan by name, while wrestling with the economic and social concerns of now as much as then, they are clinging to an authentic punk tradition in a way that is mirrored in their sound. This album is firmly rooted in that early crossover sound that MuniWaste captured so well on their first albums while having a punk energy that has been rather lacking in their more recent albums. If The Fatal Feast was as thrashy as MuniWaste ever had been then this is its foil as a punky crossover stomper.

The solos remain as short as they did on Fatal Feast when they appear at all. The riffs never slow down for too long, maintaining an upbeat pace throughout the album. That doesn’t mean there is never any chance for stomping and moshing, given who we’re talking about, but the slower place is only momentary. It’s as if LandPhil was saving his best riffs for this album. Overall, these are simply some great songs that somehow sound fresh albeit retro in nature. Tony Foresta does vocals here and parties seem to divide quite sharply on whether they approve or disapprove, but here he is doing his thing of straightforward shouts against a more intriguing backdrop than the last few albums he has appeared on. The track, Snake Chopper, features a guest appearance from Thomas Lindburg of At the Gates, whose vocals don’t really seem to match the music in my eyes, but is a solid contribution nonetheless.

I’ll include a disclaimer that I feel as if my rating might look a little high, but I think compared to the scores that the last two Municipal Waste albums have received then this easily deserves every point I’ve given it. Worse Than Dead easily leaves those albums in the dust even if it doesn’t have quite the grit that the first two MuniWaste albums. A389 is offering sampling of the tracks here on their bandcamp. I also made comparisons only to Municipal Waste given that I was more familiar with them than Darkest Hour, but I also think that this album sounds much more like the former’s style rather than the latter.