Album Review: The Men That Will Not Be Blamed For Nothing – “This May Be The Reason Why The Men That Will Not Be Blamed For Nothing Cannot Be Killed By Conventional Weapons”

Bloody hell, that must be a contender for longest title ever, I’m buggered if I’m typing that again. Genius move though – say that twice and I’ve covered most of my wordcount.

The latest in a snowballing trail of steampunk madness, following the (now legally disputed) Now That’s What I Call Steampunk Volume 1 and not one, but two, single releases on Edison’s long obsolete wax cylinder format, album number two can only up the stakes in the Anachronists assault on what you though was history – introduced fittingly by time-traveller Sylvester McCoy, off Doctor Who.

Covering variously Queen Victoria’s resurrection of her late husband, the now Zombie Albert (Victoria’s Secret), one families pleasant meeting with that Lovecraftian deity Cthulu down in Margate (Margate Fhtagn), 10,000 volt birth control (Tesla Coil), and not forgetting a bit of wanking and poo (various), there’s something here for everyone, as long as they’re a bit weird and perhaps somewhat silly.

Musically it’s a mixed bag, with some songs being more heavy on the comedy and less rocking on the music, but there’s plenty of quality riffs here verging between punk, thrash and death metal in various places but with the humour making it all very accessible, and dare I say it danceable. The steampunk scene has been an odd one in musical terms, with no real template for the sound, and every band very much putting their own spin on it, but The Men That Will Not Be Blamed For Nothing have taken the most direct and in your face approach, and are the strongest of the bunch for it.

It could easily be a gimmick or a fad, and indeed for many I think it will be, but with the pure entertainment this band have managed to wring out of the steampunk idea, they’ve turned it into an art form. Long may they hold back the passage of time and the interloping influence of common sense, and continue to come up with ideas of this calibre – the future would be a very dull place if it didn’t include such a joyfully odd take on the past as this.

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