YANQUI U.X.O.

The title of the album is no doubt political as "Yanqui" is Spanish for Yankee and "U.X.O." stands for "Unexploded Ordinences" like cluster bombs or landmines.They also attack the record companies by connecting them to the military as diagramed on the back of the album cover.They suggest in this diagram that the four major record labels fund armies indirectly. And they also encourage fans not to buy from the big retail chain-stores. The big difference for me between this record and their previous ones is the removal of samples. They are stripped down for this one and this it's also quite long at 75 minutes. My only complaint is that the music is predictable for the most part. You know the drill, slowly build to an explosive climax and then start over and do it again. There is nothing new here but it still impresses big time !

"09-15-00 (Part One)" is also political as mentioned in the liner notes it refers to "Ariel Sharon surrounded by 1,000 Isreali soldiers marching on Al-Haram Ash-Sharif and provoking another intifada". Their words not mine. I'm a huge supporter of isreal. The song starts out quietly as it slowly builds to the first climax before setttling back down. It then rebuilds to less of a climax. Violin melodies 8 minutes in start to build (surprise) as guitars join in. We get the biggest explosion of sound in this song 10 minutes in that lasts a minute and a half. Nice. It calms back down until...here we go again ! 14 1/2 minutes i'm laughing because they're in the power-rage mode again, a wall of sound. "09-15-00 (Part Two)" really compliments the first song as we get slowly played beautiful melodies. "Rockets Fall On Rocket Falls" starts to get powered up 3 1/2 minutes in when the drums arrive followed by some scorching guitar. It's absolute mayhem 5 minutes in as the rockets have fallen ! The drums slowly pound for quite a while as some trumpet comes in and then guitar, and 13 minutes in it's getting louder. 16 minutes in we're close to an apocalyptic-like soundscape. The drum pattern finally changes 16 1/2 minutes in and then an ear piercing sound follows. "Motherf**ker=Redeemer (Part One)" starts to build especially when drums and violin come in after 3 minutes. We get a brief outbreak but not the real thing until 7 1/2 minutes in when they are on fire ! It calms down as we get some brief heaviness before it becomes very sad and depressing to the end of the song. "Motherf**ker Redeemer (Part Two)" actually has a catchy melody that builds. Machine gun-like drumming after 3 minutes. This might be the best song on the album, the drumming is great.

Well there it is, perhaps the last record from this legendary band. Yes it's different, and it has divided a lot of their fans. For me this ranks right up there at 4.5 stars.