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Punk has been declared dead for years by those who still wait for the likes of Refused to regroup and Against Me to release another Reinventing Axl Rose. Albums like A Wilhelm Scream’s Career Suicide and Propagandhi’s Supporting Caste would in turn provide a very strong case to the contrary. Sure they may not sound like the Dead Kennedys, Minor Threat, or early 90’s Bad Religion, but evolution is necessary for the genre to survive, and it so happens that evolving is one of the things Strung Out does best.
The band’s dedication on improving their musicianship, their focus on technicality, and an ever present hunger to explore and expand have led Strung Out from the catchy Warped Tour worthy punk tunes of Suburban Teenage Wasteland Blues to the face melting tracks found on Exile In Oblivion. With their 6th album, Blackhawks Over Los Angeles, it finally seemed that Strung Out had found their comfort zone and that, like many bands before them, they would be destined to release different versions of the same album until finally calling it quits. This is the part where you listen to Agents of the Underground and feel like a fool for doubting the band’s creativity and will to evolve.
Agents of the Underground is fast, energetic and powerful. This time around, instead of adding lots of new elements or trying to bring in outside influences the band does the exact opposite, they synthesize themselves. The album contains the energy and melodies of Teenage Wasteland and mixes it with the power and technicality found in Exile and Twisted by Design. They also found the way to keep an outstanding balance in their melodies and song structures. They succeed in bringing heaviness and speed without the need to sound like a frustrated metal band while at the same time keeping the songs flowing with smooth precision. Songs like “Black Crosses”, “Ghetto Heater” and” Dead Spaces” are all excellent examples of this.
In the end, Agents of the Underground turns out to be the most complete album of Strung Out’s career. By using their own beginnings as influence Strung Out has managed to create something more refreshing and cohesive, and after 15 years and 7 albums that’s something to be proud of. The fans who love the metal-like Strung Out will still favor Exile, and the ones who love the melodic punk/pop-punk anthems will still favor Teenage Wasteland, yet in spite of that, by their evolution coming full circle, Agents of the Underground will probably turn out to be the defining album of their career.
