The Exploited
Troops Of Tomorrow

Raise your hand if you don't know the Exploited. For thirty years now, they have been the standard-bearers of hardcore punk made in England, the most imitated, the most famous, more than the various Discharge, GBH, English Dogs, and dubious company. Formed in '79 as a street punk group influenced by the Sex Pistols and oi!, they released in 1981 the manifesto "Punks Not Dead," still their most famous and celebrated album, and the following year this "Troops Of Tomorrow." If in the first album the offer was still firmly anchored to '77 school punk, already here you can notice how the sound has become heavier and more robust in a remarkable way; Wattie Buchanan and company (at the time Big John Duncan on guitar, Gary McCormack on bass, and Steve Roberts on drums) made the first step towards the punk metal that from "Death Before Dishonor" onwards would be their main proposition.

"Troops Of Tomorrow" contains some of the most famous tracks by the Exploited: besides the title track, a Vibrators cover, we find indeed "Alternative", "Sid Vicious Was Innocent", the "U.S.A." dedicated to Jello Biafra, guilty of declaring that there were no longer valid punk bands in England, the very violent "UK 82", the metal-like "Rapist", the opening "Jimmy Boyle", all songs that have their strength in the sonic impact, even more than in the slogans shouted by Wattie with an acid voice. Those made "Punks Not Dead" great; here there is not too much space for oi!, which is left aside (only returning sporadically, see "Alternative"); in that fateful 1982, the Discharge in England released that punch in the stomach which is "Hear Nothing See Nothing Say Nothing," Amebix were designing that sonic monster that would be called Crust, Napalm Death was born, even relatively old glories like UK Subs were metalizing their punk. It was necessary to adapt to the wave of musical violence; punk needed an evolution, an extremization, otherwise, it would have remained stagnant within its own limits; groups that were unable to refresh their proposition, like Sham 69, Cockney Rejects, Vibrators, X-Ray Spex, and a thousand others soon ended up in oblivion.

Something that, indeed, did not happen to the Exploited; otherwise, they wouldn't be considered today a point of reference in the scene, despite not having released an album of new material since the now distant 2003 ("Fuck The System"). Anyway, if you really want to look for a motivation for this success, do not search for it in the more recent albums (so to speak; from 1990 until today they have released only three), look for it in albums like this one.