Lars Frederiksen and the Bastards return with their second album ‘Viking’. Most of you will know that Lars is one of the front men in Rancid, one of the most successful punk bands of the last decade. This little side-project started a few years back when Mr Tim Armstrong persuaded Lars that it would be a god idea to get his tales of Campbell onto record. The fourteen new tracks that feature here are co-written between the two rancid men, and Tim even pops up with some vocals on one song. Now unlike the Transplants, the other Rancid side-project, Lars and his Bastards play punk rock the way it used to be played.
From the off ‘Viking’ is all about old style street punk, and yet it also seems overly concerned with image. The songs, apart from the two covers, are all about Lars life; from his beginnings in Campbell to life on the road with rancid and personal relationships. One thing that plays a big part in the album is violence. The likes of ‘Skins, Punx and Drunx’ and the poor ‘Switchblade’ (with Rob Aston) glorify violence seemingly for the sake of image. This nagging feeling about image is only given weight by the frankly appalling artwork – it’s not big and it’s not clever.
However, all this would be an aside if this lived up to the standards of the first Bastards album. Sadly it doesn’t. It’s an album that is very much a hit and miss affair. There are some very good songs on here. The likes of ‘1%’, the great cover of ‘Marie Marie’ and the familiar ‘Little Rude Girl’ are all indications of the power of Lars in full flow. The qualities of the band are also evident on tracks like ‘The kids are quiet on sharmon palms’, a song that showcases how good street punk can be. However, too often the quality of the album dips. ‘Maggots’ and ‘Blind Ambition’ are poor but closing song – the homage to Lars’ roots – ‘The Viking’ is just really, really bad.
With ‘Viking’ Lars Frederiksen and the Bastards have crafted an album that is nothing more than average, and definitely a case of style over substance. This is unlikely to find much recognition outside of genre fans and Rancid completists, and that’s a shame because Lars has proven in the past he is better than this.
Mark