Bull Brigade
Stronger Than Time

Bull Brigade are one of the most influential Italian Oi! bands since the 2000s; and when I say "most influential" I mean that I can't think of a punk group from that scene born in the last ten years where you can't hear at least a little bit of Eugenio and company’s influence. Plus, they're a group that’s really close to my heart, because they're one of those bands who – after a difficult first approach – have literally accompanied me for a good stretch of, so to speak, my youth.

The truth is, though, that when it comes to truly great albums – I mean, really great – the band has made just one, the first one: years and years go by and this short eight-minute record comes out. In between there was "Vita libertà", a good album that would definitely have been a stratospheric achievement for many other bands, but which didn't match the compositional depth of the debut. In fact, the first album was a real mosaic of love for the city ("Costruito a Torino"), for football ("Sulla collina"), stories of drinking away pain ("Dannato pub"), memories of youth ("A Way of Life"), old glories ("Birra") and tales of moods that are carved in the heart of anyone who, at eighteen, found themselves alone in the rain without knowing why. In that first album, there was only one track, "Vendetta", that slightly lowered the bar (or at most we can admit that "A Way of Life" didn’t quite have the grit of "Keep the Faith"). So, I think it’s necessary to consider the weight that rested on the shoulders of Eugenio Borra, the band’s mastermind. He had written a masterpiece that even on the international scene, let’s be honest, few had ever seen; and the fact was, the years were passing. They went on and where there’d been a kid, now there was an adult. So, if we want to talk about Bull Brigade, let's not bother with artistic ramblings fit for a literary salon: we're talking about the tricks life played on a man, for real.

So, when it comes to the release of this short album, Eugenio Borra has many years behind him, and we need to take into account everything that’s happened in that time. The punk aesthetic has exploded once again, mixing on social media and, above all, thanks to social-political happenings, with goth, alternative, indie and anything else you can think of. It’s now socially acceptable to call Green Day punk even if no one asks why the bassist keeps those sideburns like that... There’s no way around it: somewhere you had to start again, because the old Oi! – which rose from the rubble of what punk had been in the '80s – had shrunk down to an epic poem of the past.

This long preamble serves to explain how to frame this album and the following ones from Bull Brigade, the latest of which will be released in a few days and is eagerly awaited. As is well-known to those who follow the street punk scene, the band has shifted its sound toward a melodic pop punk/hardcore which, as I see it, has one great advantage and two big flaws. The big advantage is that Eugenio Borra has managed to look forward, to stop forcing himself into the structures that punk imposed back in the Banda del Rione days; the major flaws are that he doesn’t always succeed (neither in terms of quality nor credibility) and that, in order to do so, he’s turned his back a bit on the old glories. However, on this album, it must be said, the experiment works out pretty well. The cover art is standard and acceptable. The choice to use English frankly borders on the unpresentable, you can barely understand what the vocals are mumbling and the worst Sabaton in comparison sound like they just walked out of Oxford. The attempt to break into the foreign market sinks. However, the title track has a great drive: the melody vaguely reminds me of "Mai confonderla" and, although you can feel the melodic vein—which I’m not a fan of—it must be acknowledged that it wouldn’t have looked out of place on "Vita libertà"; in fact, it’d have been a good song. It wouldn’t have made the podium like "Strade smarrite", okay, but it wouldn’t have caused a scandal: and above all, does it even make sense to compare them? Given what’s been said before, maybe not. The second track is based on similar, catchier coordinates; it doesn’t reach the same level but it's definitely enjoyable enough. The lyrics don’t move too far, but actually it has to be said that they don’t always recycle the same images, trying for better or for worse not to be too "Turinese". Turin, in fact, isn’t so prominent here.

So this album is, in my opinion, a showcase of the best Bull Brigade could offer in 2020. It’s now clear that the sound of the past won’t be coming back, and maybe that’s for the best. This is a good punk album that certainly won’t make anyone who grew up on bread and pop punk turn up their nose, but it’ll also appeal to fans of old-school Oi!. Will Borra and co.’s melodic shift prove to be a winner? Only time will tell. Rating: 74/100.