Lars Frederiksen and the Bastards – Viking

Lars Frederiksen and the Bastards are back with their second album, Viking, and it is a very odd release. The first thing you notice is the booklet. It starts off with a loving tribute to Lars’ brother Rob where Lars tells us how much he meant to him and about how he found out that he was dead. From that point on it’s basically pictures of Lars with naked groupies and stripers in various hotel rooms (and one of skinhead Rob with a dun in his hand a blonde on his lap). Don’t worry too much, its not straight out porn as they have censored all the sensitive areas of the bodies. The font used for the lyrics is messy and difficult to read, especially when they are pictures of naked women right next to it.

You then move on to the actual disc and you are giving 16 songs of basically the same mold. They are hard hitting, gangster- street punk rock songs. Some of the songs last three minutes, well others last a mere 30 seconds and just fly by. Lars’ vocals are what you expect of them from Rancid and their previous release, due to many years of alcohol they are hard and rough. Sometimes, they are incomprehensible, but that can be a good thing at times. Because quite frankly, the lyrics are just odd. They boast about guns, getting in fights, having sex with prostitutes, murder, drinking, doing dope, and so on. Sure, with a name likeLars Frederiksen and the Bastards, you shouldn’t be looking for enlightenment or powerful lyrics, but some of these just go overboard in the angry punk rocker attitude. Some of the best songs is theRancid-esque song My Life To Live, which also features Tim Armstrong or the slow sing along song of The Viking. The fast paced songs, like Little Rude Girl, Blind Ambition and Gods Of War are also fun to listen to.

Musically, The Bastards deliver fast paced punk rock incredibly well. Lars and Craig are both amazing guitarists while Big Jay is a great bassist too. They play angry street punk rock and roll perfectly, and really have what was missing in the last Rancid album.

Viking is a decent CD, I could see listening to it a few times, but it does get boring after a while, and very repetitive.