LENIN - FUCK IT Part 1 - Times Have Been Worse...

As far as history goes for Lenin, there's not much to be discovered. The band contains member Steven Blind (vocals), Simon Rook (guitars, general programming), and Just Jeremy (bass). They describe themselves with various phrases, but I believe the one that suits them best would be a "punky industrial affair", as written by Blind himself. There's an obvious anime influence on the project as well what with their logo containing a character in that art style but I don't see much of that within the music itself. 

The band currently has two releases on their Bandcamp page, the first of which is a double titled "Rolling The Plastic Dice". Taking a quick glance at the page, it's immediate that Lenin is the type of project either trying to be edgy or have a laugh, or possibly both. They describe the second song on the double 'Start Shooting Cops' as a song "about having gay sex with your dad if he's a cop". The terrible aspect about describing your politically charged song with incestuous undertones means that not too many people are going to take an acute interest in your music - even if they agree with the message that's presented in the song. Nonetheless, I'm not here to review that double, so take it as it is I suppose.

The album that I'm reviewing is their late-2020 effort "FUCK IT Part 1 - Times Have Been Worse...". I had an audible sigh when I saw the cover art; hard-boiled minions (yes, the minions from Despicable Me) are on the front with glowing red laser eyes. I don't know if there's supposed to be a tie between the minions and the band's actual music, but I can't stand them, and I kind of went back to my rant from earlier: if you're going to have a political message, one that you want taken with thought, then your art or descriptions should match the tone. Lenin is a band that claims Dead Kennedys as an influence, and I need not look any further than that project's timeless single 'Nazi Punks Fuck Off' as an example of what I'm saying. The cover art was simple; a cancellation sign over the swastika in the center of a record while the title of the track overlaid it. Simple. Easy to read, easy to be understood. The cover to Lenin's album fails in this aspect. Nonetheless, and as I state in every review I conduct, cover art never effects the review score; this is simply fun for me to explore. 



So, this leads me into the album itself which begins with the lead single from their 2019 double 'Rolling The Plastic Dice'. What stands out the most about the song is the vocals which is not meant to be a compliment. Blind's chords are sounding as if they want to be a mix between operatic shouts and thrashy punk-styled screams while failing to do either or. It sounds like incoherent rambling that, while should be audible and easily understood, comes off as someone making random noises into a microphone. This vocal style is carried into subsequent songs such as 'Diamond Is Unbreakable', 'Yuppie-Ki-Yay', and others.

Blind also commits to two separate, spoken-word tracks titled '9-11 Yhuck Yhuck Time' and 'Donny's Big Dogdick Energy'. Both are sarcastic with light instruments in the background but the quality of the vocal recordings are pretty bad. The second of the two contains a horrible Donald Trump impersonation that's barely above a whisper. Both of these pieces are wasteful and time-consuming and were skipped upon subsequent replays of the album for just how annoying I found them to be.

The sole redeeming factor about this band is that Simon Rook and Just Jeremy are fairly competent musicians. While what's presented on this album is not ground-breaking (much of these sounds have been mastered by legends such as Dio, Ozzy, and classic rock outfits like ACDC and the like), they are good at emulating and replicating what's been done in the past. There is a rawness to their music, however, which somewhat diverts them from past successes. 

After spending the past couple of days with this album and listening to it multiple times, I have to admit that I'm not impressed. Their strategy of combining horrible, real-world situations with disgusting descriptions and confusing artwork lacks an intellect that can be found from other modern day bands and groups that Lenin looks up to (i.e. Dead Kennedys). The vocals are quite awful; either Blind needs to take vocal lessons and learn to sing clearly, or Rook and Jeremy should find a new vocalist immediately. While the instrumentals from the trio are relatively decent, what they're doing has been done over and over and over again. They need to find a way to take their talent, polish it, and create something unique rather than emulating their influences. 

Taken as a whole, "FUCK IT Part 1 - Times Have Been Worse" is simply not an album that I can recommend to anyone that I know. But, then again, opinions are subjective and maybe you'll find something to adore from the album. You can stream it up top with the embedded player or you can go onto Lenin's Bandcamp page and stream it there. 

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Jan 24 2021