The Evaluation

Item: We Built The Gun That Causes This Unending Fear
Author: Brian A. Smith

We Built The Gun That Causes This Unending Fear

Reviewed by Brian A. Smith

Discogs Bandcamp Apple Music TIDAL Spotify

Label Lujo RecordsThe Phantom Tollbooth2004

hardcore post-punk punk

Arising like a phoenix from the ashes of the band Danger Will Robinson is The Evaluation, a "dance punk" trio out of Illinois. From the opening lines of "The One Thing John Grisham and Wal-Mart Have in Common" it becomes obvious that this is a group that has a different way of looking at things. This is a commentary on the philosophy that Americans believe to think that if something is popular, it must then be good:

I got my credit card/I got my SSN
I got my birthday/I'm ready to spend.

The entire album is built around one concept: resentment and the corruption of society by power and money. Songs such as "We Will Sit Up Here to Destroy All of the Thought Processes on the Mount of Possibility" (social commentary about Washington?), and "The 8th is No Longer the 8th, the 8th is Now the 10th, Thanks to You, Our Fearless Leader" unflinchingly question the political structure of our country, a la Rage Against the Machine.

"You're Wrong, We Haven't Built a Thing" serves notice to those who would praise the band that they feel they haven't arrived yet. "Cop Man" seeks to reclaim the true self-worth of its writer, rather than the image assigned to him. "La Masacre de la Musica" is exactly what you would expect from its title, a loud mishmash of sounds that somehow manages to hold itself together, however tenuously.

The Evaluation is thinking man's hard rock. Musically, they incorporate Devo, Radiohead, and Fugazi (how's that for unrelated influences?) and '70's hard rock, and punk and throw it into the blender. The result is an unrelenting tour de force that will have you nodding your head, then shaking it five minutes later.

4 tocks