Assalti Frontali
HSL

“Don't enter if you don't know which side you're on,” warn Assalti in the title track.
That's how it is, you either love or hate Assalti... also depending on your political affiliation. Because Assalti Frontali are primarily left-wing militants, as the name of Militant A, the frontman, suggests, who along with Brutopop forms the current lineup.

Twelve years have passed since Terra Di Nessuno, the masterpiece by Assalti Frontali from 1992, before that we knew them as Onda Rossa Posse (Batti Il Tuo Tempo... ring any bells?). We know Assalti for their seriousness, their militancy, the extreme political value of their lyrics.
Sincerity and truth have characterized all their productions and are not lacking in H.S.L., an acronym for “Hic Sunt Leones”. Assalti once again introduce us to their free zone with uncertain boundaries, far from the experiences of us regular people, something different from “bourgeois” daily life. Here are the young lions, struggling to try and change the state of things, even putting themselves at stake.

Assalti haven't changed and still strike, continuing on the path traced with "Conflitto": making a played rap with protest lyrics, "aware" and committed.
The problems are the same as in 1992, the targets of protest and discontent have changed partially: in Terra Di Nessuno politics, the Christian Democracy, the stars-and-stripes flag that bombed Baghdad in 1991 were the demons to defeat, while today, even though the Americans haven’t managed to lose their habit of bombing Baghdad, the Enemy is the Market (ethereal embodiment of "Capital") the elusive one responsible for social disparities, misery, injustices, inequalities, the eternal scapegoat of those who truly run the show, of those who “patent our destinies”.

However, there is an important difference compared to past works: the mood. In the last six years, something must have happened that changed Militant A's life and influenced the genesis of H.S.L. and its effect has been decidedly positive: the work is more mature and balanced compared to others. While previous records conveyed only anguish and anger for the current state and Assalti Frontali took themselves a bit too seriously, today in H.S.L. there is also a newfound vein of fun, which allowed them to create an unusual piece about the legalization of soft drugs, or other tracks like “Sulla Strada” or “Le Merde Fanno Affari”. All these tracks are characterized by a faint underlying smile, not a sign of empty detachment but of conscious irony, certainly setting them far apart from the anguishes of some old tracks.

Noteworthy is “Denaro Gratis”, a track that loudly demands a fair redistribution of wealth (“come on, now, divide the cash / we are equal partners in human society [...] / the wealth of the earth is made by us and there's enough / but whose pocket is our share in now?”).
“Rotta Indipendente” is another track to listen to, a potential anthem of disobedience, the “Silent Sun” of Assalti, as well as “In Periferia”, a lucid analysis of post-September 11 from the perspective of those living in the “lower strata” and “Bella Da Morire”, reasoning about the true motivations of war conducted in the first person by one of its Lords, who first presents the pretexts (“The primitives hold arms and explosives / and they are all terrorists with a goal in mind”) then tells the truth (“War is a business / and a business is a duty / we pray for peace / but war is a pleasure”).

Assalti ultimately hold steady and have also learned to smile.
But without overdoing it, because these days there’s little to be cheerful about.