Rainbow Recall – Strong Boys

Strong Boys

★★★★★
Strong Boys
9:04 min • Independent • February 22, 2013
Walter Beck reviews
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From Dublin comes a group of angry queers known as the Strong Boys. Their debut 7-inch is probably the hardest, fastest, meanest slab of wax to come out of the queercore scene. Packed with lighting fast punk rhythms, heavy guitars, growling vocals, and a dedication to queer liberation, this record isn’t for the weak of heart.

Opening with ‘Can’t Take It Back’, the band starts things off with a squeal of feedback before launching into a pounding hardcore rhythm. Taking a cue from the long tradition of political hardcore bands, the lyrics hit just as hard as the sound,

You say what you say and you think you’ll get away,
You’re just another religious fuck afraid of being gay.

But we’re still here and we’re still queer 
And we won’t let you spread the fear.

‘No Choice’, a minute long hardcore blast, takes aim at one of the most common arguments of the opposition, that somehow it’s a choice to be queer. Armed with loud guitars and vicious vocals, the Strong Boys drive that dirty lie right into oblivion, barking proudly,

Cocks are in my genes,
I’ll tell you what it means ,
Was born this way, I’ll always be gay and I’ll always want bears in jeans.

The third cut ‘Cocktheft’ is the shortest song on the record, clocking in at fifty-five seconds of raw, burning lust. Taking a side step from radical politics, the bands barks loudly of wanting huge cocks and calling out those who pretend to have a big package.

But the passion for pleasure doesn’t last as the band quickly moves back into defiant politics with ‘Rainbow Recall’, a short hard rocking anthem about taking pride in the Colors, a bold strike at straight society who asks us why we fly the Colors, why we take pride in who we are,

Never had to be the fag.
Never had people stare.
Never had to have the talk.
Think of why we fly the flag.

Don’t think it’s the same, no rainbow recall.

‘Big Man’ is a strike against passive aggressiveness, the spiritual successor to Minor Threat’s hardcore classic ‘Small Man, Big Mouth’. While the Strong Boys certainly have a far more aggressive sound than Minor Threat, the point remains the same and this track could become a contemporary hardcore classic.

The record comes to an end with ‘World Goin’ Sour’, the longest track on the record, clocking in at 2:39. The band ends with another bout of political anger, striking at the laws remaining on the books that keep us in chains and the apathetic majority that keeps such laws on the books. While the song is soaked in raw punk speed, there are several bars of squealing, slowed down feedback that drive the anger even further home.

In 9 minutes, the Strong Boys have made a righteously angry stand for militant queers worldwide. The band has proved themselves, this is the hardest, fastest record I’ve heard out of the queercore scene this year. The Strong Boys are Dublin’s answer to legendary hardcore queer rockers Limp Wrist, their militant sound puts the lukewarm warriors in the movement on notice and gives even the hardest queercore fans a run for their money.