Listening to Militarie Gun’s All Roads Lead To The Gun II is like driving on a mountain road and witnessing a landslide. The speed, scope, and power that bleeds through this 9-minute EP left me in awe of what I witnessed. The enormity and brevity within their songs equates to seeing a 50 ton boulder roll off a cliff and crush the parked car in front of you. We can only control so much in this life. It only takes one pebble to fall to start a landslide. We’re inherently vulnerable at any given moment to the powers of nature.
Ian Sheldon puts his vulnerabilities on full display when he screams of his “Burned Beaten Bludgeoned Brain” during the opening track, “Big Disappointment”. Accompanied by sharp, fuzzy guitar tones and big bruising drum beats, there’s lyrics about rage, “getting-got”, and being lied to. The world that Militarie Gun creates is rooted in the anxieties that we all share in our post-everything society. Everyone is angry, nobody knows what to do, and we’re all stuck here. Militarie Gun understands that the world that we live in leaves us all vulnerable and open for exploitation.
Sheldon himself admitted to this vulnerability in a September interview with Paste by saying (in reference to his local Washington punk scene), “I think people kind of thought I was a goober, honestly. They thought I was a punisher, they thought I was lame.”
Personally, I feel lame and anxious at just about any show that I attend. Am I too old? Do I know enough about this band? Does anyone else think it’s too loud? Through their songwriting, Militarie Gun address their anxieties head-on and seemingly welcomes listeners into their collective existence with open arms.
Often times, punk bands present themselves as having this “woe is me”, “fuck society”, “destroy everything” vibe without really presenting a solution to any problem. On All Roads Lead to the Gun II, Militarie Gun lays forward a hyper-focused, laser-guided, shock-and-awe assault on the subject matter of their lyrics.
I’m really excited to see these guys live and listening to the future stuff they put out.
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