... you're a soldier on the frontline, like the youth of yesterday, you're standing in the crossfire and you're living day by day...

TEMPLARS - "OUTREMER" ("G.M.M. Records"; CD):

Yeahr, one of my very all-time favorite bands ever, the legendary TEMPLARS from New York City. If it comes to the meaning of "Oire Szene", "Punkrock!" fanzine, etc. then they are one of the most 'evil' bands out there, hidden racists and fascists hiding behind Phils black skin to spread their radical if not extreme right wing message... I don't have to tell ya all how ridiculous and stupid this all is, so forget about it. I think there had been two or three solely TEMPLARS and also split 7 inch single releases came out of the TEMPLARS since the "OUTREMER" full length here back in ca. 2003 was released, and I do also think that back in the days "OUTREMER" also came as a limited (?) Picture LP. And the good guys of "REBELLION RECORDS HOLLAND" licensed "OUTREMER" to the european market one or two years ago and then it also came with two bonus songs, for what I know. But this here is the original release of the currently still last and newest full length record of this New York Giants (haha, I hope you all got it, 'cause damn, am I not a funny guy, haha;-)...), and that's the reason why you still find this review here even today with at least some justifiction. And damn it, but this is really a great record that these New York heroes had been given us here!!! We get eleven tracks plus two very cool intros (that I think will have the function of being the intros to each single side of the LP... ah, what a clever guy I am today again, right, haha;-)...) here on this record, all done in the unique and typical TEMPLARS style between good old American Oi!, traditional U.K. Oi! music, early Streetpunk, good Punkrock, some classical Rock & Roll music notes and Mod Rock sound, hymnal and melodical, yet hard and massive forward rockin' and all very much free of trends and clichè crap. The very dry and dusty guitar playing is just fantastic and it's really marking the songs heavily. At first you might think it's very reduced and minimalistic, but while you listen to the songs, the music you get it more and more how damn good, brilliant, and smart it is. The guitar playing is building the songs up, giving them a concrete and very massive basement of hard guitar riffing, and then you can see and/or hear how 'the building climbs up the sky' (to stay in this 'building-metaphor'), how the songs develop when the great leads, melodies and solos take the lead and giving the songs, and I mean each single one of them, a really unique and stand-alone outstanding character. Fantastic!!! Then you get it that it may sound reduced and minimalistic, but that here is nothing anyhow reduced or minimalistic at the end of the day. Beside this then there is this great bass playing. Hard and really heavy, very massive and bulky, yet warm and grapping you, allowing the songs to surround you and not letting you out again, floating through the space and your ears and letting you know how good and unique Oi! music can be if you just allow it to be. And that's not all, 'cause there is still Phils damn great and brilliant drumming. Tight, well-versed like nothing else, and really hard and fulminating as fuck, that's a really massive and beefy Skinhead Rock & Roll beat, it really rules!!! And then there are still the smart and charismatic lead vocals, rough, raw, and yet clear to understand, fantastic!!! And the TEMPLARS also really damn know how to play their instruments, damn good musicians and more than just well-versed, and they also know how to write awesome and amazingly good songs. They build up tension and create a really grapping atmosphere, changing pace and mood of the songs constantly in a very exciting and grapping way, and they know how to write anthemic yet not clichè songs. And they also know how to create really great and especially very fresh refrains with giant sing a long potential. And this all you find on "OUTREMER" in perfection!!! What shall I say, this band is just fantastic!!! It doesn't matter if it are stunning musical sledgehammer tracks like the breath-taking and larger than life opener "FRONTLINE", or if it are grapping and emotional ballads like the pure beauty "ON MY OWN", or hymnal rockin' and punkin' boneshakers like "LOST AND FOUND" or "TRUE TO THE CAUSE", they know to do it all!!! And they do it brilliant!!! And above all there is this great charismatic voice, the larger than life leads and melodies, and the high tension bonecracking drumming. Hell yeahr, that's the real deal!!! Also the lyrics are just great stuff and they do cover a pretty wide distance from Boots & Aggro issues to very personal and emotional topics, and the earthy and dry and dirty production sound is also really a bomb, and the artwork, damn I love such motifs, the artwork looks just awesome!!! So, if you still don't own this record, then damn it, then get your lazy fat ass off the screen and go and buy it finally, you need this record, you just have to have it, so simple things can be. Great!!! Point and fact!!! Cheers & Oi! (10 of 10 points)

(http://www.myspace.com/thetemplars)

I've already given you two videos of the TEMPLARS some weeks ago, "SAVING GRACE" and "STICK TO YOUR GUNS" to name them here precise, but that won't stop me from giving you here and now another video of the great TEMPLARS, the "Oi! Fanatiques from N.Y.C.", and it's a live video of their great anthem "FRONTLINE", the above already mentioned opener of the currently reviewed "OUTREMER" record. The sound quality is maybe not the best, that said you will have to admit that it is at least pretty okay at all, so I hope you will enjoy it!!! Ah, but before the video, as usual, here do come the lyrics of the song:

TEMPLARS - "FRONTLINE"

You're a soldier on the frontline

Like the youth of yesterday

You're standing in the crossfire

And you're living day by day

Now life has lost itsmeaning

And your heart, it feels no love

You're waiting for the kill

And you can almost taste the blood

THE ROAD IT LEADS TO HELL

AND YOU LIVE A LIFE OF SORROW

YOU KNOW THERE'S NO RETURN

AND THERE'S NO HOPE FOR TOMORROW

Warm blood flows through your veins

You anticipate the battle

You don't know what fate awaits

Nor the outcome of the struggle

The memories you've held

Of the ones you left behind

Have all but faded away

With your faith in mankind

TEMPLARS - "FRONTLINE" (live)