Forever Stray
My friends, Stray From The Path are back, as sharp as tacks and as hard as nails, perhaps our society has disintegrated so cruelly that their latest album ‘Euthanasia’ has no option but to set the theme for our times.
Under the watchful eye of Will Putney, we lick our lips as we savour the path we are about to embark on. First up is ‘Needful Things’ setting the standard and the scene, SFTP know how to word things, they are on point with the one liners, in this case ‘Are you in or in the way?’- you will find similar ones over the course of the record.
‘III’ is the final part of the anti- police trilogy and what a note to end on. We are reminded of the Uvalde tragedy, we suspect that the ‘blue line’s looking real gang related’ how the venal beings are in charge, and they administer the law according to their own twisted, delusional, mindset.
The single ‘Guillotine’ is like a drone circling you, watching your every move, no escape as you are launched into the ‘off with their fucking heads’ filth ridden breakdown.
‘Law Abiding Citizen’ is a role call of all the bastards in our society, those who live behind a veneer of the great and the good, but simmering underneath are criminal undertakings that I can’t even scratch the surface with. Name and shame these grotesque individuals, accountability is needed but sadly lacking for these people. There is a distinctive groove to the track, allowing for a different sound and structure, inspiring and innovative. Confrontation is the order of the day and ‘The Salt In Your Spit’ has the poke in the eye at 1.12 with ‘Coward’ I can’t explain what that one word just did to me.
We finish with ‘Ladder Work’ and it is the perfect ending to an album that carries the burden that we all carry, songs that know our stories, written by people who walk with us and suffer how we do. Get your gnashers around this one, I’m not going to give too much away, but damn that recorded message, damn it to Hell and back. I knew I loved these guys; this album is the reason why.
A lot of the album/EP/single releases, especially since lockdown have rage as the common denominator, artists watch as the world goes insane and use their talent to absorb that insanity and throw it back at us in a form that is angry yet palatable.
When the wish list becomes a hitlist and the bucket list becomes a fuck it list, tune in today my friends, and fuck your yesterday, together we are forever stray.
Azra Pathan
Stray From The Path – Euthanasia out now