Year of the Fist are a dual female fronted four-piece from Oakland, California. I know next to nowt about Oakland, asides from it’s now home to the Raiders American Football team, and had a chapter of bikers in the Sons of Anarchy TV show. Anyway, these guys are from there. Revive Me is their second full length, following on from their debut LP Death Breath Light & Pain and the Dirty Laundry 7in.
I’m always grateful when a band gets in touch and they are actually good. Which happens less often than you might think. This is decent, this. It’s got teeth. I kinda feel like this is the female fronted American EpiFat style punk band the world has been waiting for since Tilt disappeared at some undisclosed point. This in fact reminds me somewhat of Tsunami Bomb without the shit bits meets L7, and a touch of Airstream Futures.
Bearing in mind that I’ve not been exposed to everything ever, that’s the caveat for the next part… In a world seemingly beset by female front people of EpiFat type bands still trying to pass themselves off as either Brodie Dalle or Courtney Love both vocally and in terms of persona (The Last Gang for example), the dual vocal assault from Squeaky and Katie Cash stands worlds apart. Attitude, sass and ferocity delivered in the requisite places. Some awesome warcries and yells on here. Gold, mate.
I’d like to extend my gratitude to drummer Hal 9000Beers, and by extension, the rest of the band for plonking themselves on my radar. I’m only sorry that it’s taken me a good 7 weeks or so to get round to writing this up. That’s my shit mental health for you, I guess. If you fancy checking out something with fire, soul and more than a fair share of grit and determination, I’d encourage you to listen on the player below. This is kind of like if Sheer Mag weren’t a total wet fart of a band, if you can imagine that, and that they actually played punk rock too. It’s a Tony of Nurgle rating of 8/10 for this one.
Revive Me is available as a digital download, on CD or on purple vinyl from the Year of the Fist bandcamp page
Find out more on the Year of the Fist Facebook page
