Sound of Our Revolution | Blizzard Comedy’s 5th Birthday Party

Contributed by Jonny Collins

5 MORE YEARS, 5 MORE YEARS

Oh boy this is going to be so late. It’s currently the 24th April, nearly a week after our birthday, and I’m only now getting around to writing about the 48 songs I picked out from the last year of Blizzard playlists that best showcase who we are, what we stand for, and how horribly jarring our music taste is.

Each of these songs have appeared on at least one of our playlists in the last year (including our 4th Birthday playlist) – and are arbitrarily ordered in a playlist that is vaguely coherent.

Expect lots of loud angry lefty socialist punk, hip-hop, metal, alternative rock, and many other arbitrarily specific genre lines.

Listen to our party playlist here:

I’ve already spoken about most of these songs before, and it’s nearly May, so I’m going to attempt to be brief, but if you want a bit of background on our choices, then read on!

1: Desperate Measures – The Human Project

Clarion Call – 2018 – Melodic Hardcore
https://thehumanproject.bandcamp.com/album/clarion-call

“Call me snowflake and expect the avalanche”

This is just our theme song; I don’t know what to tell you anymore. I’m a sucker for anything that reclaims snowflake imagery as something powerful and combative, and this is a perfect example of that, and really exemplifies the energy of what we stand for at Blizzard. That is why this song is played at pretty much every live show we do.

Upbeat and bouncy melodic hardcore riffs, empowering lyrics, a song that has fixated itself in my mind since I first heard it, and I think will stay there for the best part of my life. One of my favourite songs of all time, and so apt for our vibe.

2: Rotten Dichotomy – The Best of the Worst

Better Medicine – 2021 – Skacore
https://thebestoftheworst.bandcamp.com/track/rotten-dichotomy

“It’s time to let the bigots be taken down by the misfits
We will not agree to secede, this is our fucking time
As your generation crumbles, ours will begin to rise”

This is an enduring track from way back in our best of 2021 playlist. Huh, remember 2021? I’m struggling to, not going to lie. So much bullshit has been happening during and since then.
I love this track, it’s discordant, unpleasant, heavy as fuck, and blended with bouncy ska elements contrasting the more guttural hardcore riffs and screaming.

And if that wasn’t enough, it’s all about gender fluidity and how we shouldn’t let ourselves be boxed in like computers, and crescendos on a verse pointing out the generations of people so anti the way gender identity is changing are on the way out, and we are rising. It’ll take a while, but there is a culture shift going on, and you better get on board soon, otherwise you’ll look very silly and we’ll all be laughing at you behind all of our cool new genders and self-acceptance.

3: There are Dozens of Us! – Animal Byproducts

Attempts at Understanding – 2021 – Power Pop Punk
https://animalbyproducts.bandcamp.com/album/attempts-at-understanding

“But don’t tell me I’m confused when you’re the one that seems to be
I know the truth about myself and you think that would set me free”

I yet again missed this band at the Punk festival because of impossible clashes – but one day I will see them, and when I eventually hear this song live, I’m going to be a mess of tears.

It’s so sweet and sincere, uplifting emo-tinged ode to being you, defying gender norms, boiling it down to just the “assortments of holes” that human bodies are, to make the phobes and deniers look incredibly silly for getting so worked up about us. “Oh, you have these holes, but you look this way and do these things? I cannot comprehend this, and because of this I don’t think any of you should have basic human rights.” Fucking weird, honestly.

4: The 1% – Knife Club

We Are Knife Club – 2020 – Crossover Punk
https://tnsrecords.bandcamp.com/album/we-are-knife-club

The 1% are cunts, you’re right. Always worth remembering, and this TNS supergroup really hammer this message home in just over a minute of pure, hardcore punk gloriousness.

5: All Cats Are Beautiful – Fit to Work

Voluntary Severance – 2018 – Crossover Punk
https://fittowork.bandcamp.com/album/voluntary-severance

“Don’t be a cop
Be a cat that eats cops”

There are so many ways that you can, and indeed people have said ACAB in Punk – but this might be my absolute favourite one I’ve heard yet.

The song’s climax that encourages you to be a beautiful cop eating pussycat instead of a cop, is the kind of message I want Blizzard audiences to walk away with in the forefronts of their minds for sure. This is what art is all about.

6: Heterosexuality is a Construct – Onsind

Dissatisfactions – 2010 – Acoustic Punk
https://onsind.bandcamp.com/album/dissatisfactions

“I’m not a heterosexual man
Not ticking your boxes, that’s not who I am
No, I don’t fit into your neat little plan, and I never will”

I love these lads in Onsind. They are the sweetest, most earnest boys in Punk – and this incredibly North-Eastern tinged ode to celebrating diverse and queer love brings a tear to my eye every time.
Whenever there is a Pride themed playlist, you can guarantee this will be on there, not to mention last year’s birthday playlist too, an all-round brilliant track.

7: All My Nameless Friends – Call Me Malcolm

I Was Broken When You Got Here – 2018 – Ska Punk
https://callmemalcolm.bandcamp.com/album/i-was-broken-when-you-got-here

“Beat up and let down in a bad year
Broke down but got up and I’m still here
Hold on”

This is just a lovely damn song.

Featuring on our Mental Health playlist last year, this whole album tackles struggling with depression and mental health, and all culminates in this iconic track here. It’s an optimistic note, not dismissing the journey and struggles that led here. But it has a sense of hope, and enjoyment, and referencing us all, their nameless best friends, while they’re performing a show and feeling elevated and safe with a crowd, all dancing and singing and partying together, each with their own struggles, but in that moment together as one, and as a collective always will be there. Not necessarily the same people every time, but that comforting friendly presence is very much… well present.

I think the feeling of a good concert is very aptly depicted here, even as someone who rarely gets close to the real action of a show, preferring to skulk off to the side and enjoy more passively. The feeling of warmth, love, and mutual unspoken connection in that moment, people who may have never met each other bonding over a shared love of a piece of music or a message in a song. It’s genuinely awe inspiring the power music has to connect people.

This song is the pinnacle of that feeling in my eyes. Incredible track, always cheers me up, and even if I’m not feeling down it’s just a lovely track to listen and dance to.

8: We’re The Cool Kids – Ryan Cassata

Shine – 2016 – Indie Rock

“Keep it up
We can dance all night
Don’t stop
We’ll be winning this fight
Rise up
Till the sun comes up and the sun comes up”

We’re definitely pushing the definition of kids now – we’re 5 years old now, that’s basically middle aged in comedy club years. We are still cool though, that’ll never change.

This is just a really sweet and uplifting song of solidarity and hope with trans, queer, and generally gender non-conforming people. We are going to win this fight, and we’re never going to stop dancing and being ourselves. That’s pretty damn rad tbh.

9: 18+ – Scene Queen

Hot Singles in Your Area – 2024 – Bimbocore

“Yeah, you get a lot of girls
But not one is eighteen plus”

The album is releasing June this year and I am so fucking hyped I can’t even put it into words. Scene Queen is 100% my aesthetic. Alt Rock/Metalcore techniques, with a bubble-gum coat of paint, creating a genre that is unapologetically feminine, yet heavy, angry, and goes harder than a lot of her male contemporaries.

This is my trans goal. Or maybe the inverse, I’m not sure, being non-binary is hard.

Anyway, this song is a much-needed takedown of rock and alternative bands consistently sleeping with underage girls and getting away with it, and everyone just being fine that this is a thing that keeps happening and forgetting immediately after whenever Rammstein announce a new tour or what the fuck ever. Fucking stop it. If there aren’t any grown-ups willing to fuck you, that sounds like a you problem to work on, not an incentive to go after people who aren’t old enough to realize how awful you are as people yet.

10: STINKIN RICH FAMILIES – Grove ft. Bob Vylan

PWR // PL*Y – 2023 – Punk ‘n’ Bass
https://theyisgrove.bandcamp.com/album/p-w-r-pl-y

Another of my highlight tracks from last year. I actually first heard Grove as the supporting act to Bob Vylan in 2022. So when they dropped a track together, I was all over that shit, and it might honestly be my favourite track either of them are on (and that’s a high fucking bar).

There’s just something so satisfying about how explicit and succinct this rage-induced takedown of the rich is, with those dirty fucking basslines, addictive chorus, brutally blunt bars, just everything about this track is perfection. On a pure sonic level is such an engaging listening experience to vibe with.

I fuck with this hard, this is great. They had me with “This ain’t a cost-of-living crisis, this is a rich people greed problem.” The first line, and it doesn’t let up from there.

This song knows what it’s about, and it has hit the nail on the fucking head. Perfection, honestly.

11: Hope Gets Harder – Martha

Please Don’t Take me Back – 2022 – Indie Rock
https://marthadiy.bandcamp.com/album/please-dont-take-me-back-2

“Underpaid subscription servants
Of the culture wars”

This is one originally from our Best of 2022 playlist, but cropped up in last year’s birthday playlist, and is just too good a track to omit this year.

In this track, Martha get right to the point, emoting a feeling of ever struggling hope in the face of what is increasingly seemingly like a hopeless situation.

There’s a kind of melancholic optimism to the tone here. It’s an upbeat song, but the struggle and pain is authentic and present. Every day it seems like something new happens to make things just that little bit shitter – and this song isn’t mollycoddling us from that – but it does provide us an antidote in the form of reassurance and not feeling alone. And a damn catchy one at that too.

12: Body Politics – The Menstrual Cramps

Body Politics – 2023 – Riot Grrrl
https://themenstrualcramps.bandcamp.com/track/body-politics

“Crisps for breakfast
Break the rules
Binary oppositions
Are the patriarchal tools”

The Menstrual Cramps have gone from a band who I thought were quite nice and had some catchy songs, to one of the frankly coolest bands I’ve ever had the pleasure to experience. Taking really top-level Riot Grrrl anarcho-politics into a sonic experience that is relentlessly fun and uplifting yet utterly uncompromising.

The Menstrual Cramps might honestly be the most Punk band working today. Their recent hard stances when it comes to standing up against the war crimes of the Israeli state, and our Government and corporations that are funding and profiting off of it for one, very much being one of the most vocal bands I’ve seen on this issue. Lyrically astute in all the topics they cover, from class warfare, gender politics, the queer experience, and everything in-between. And musically both taking the language established in the Punk genre, but adding their own, almost abrasive janky-ness to it to really stick out in a scene that is prone to saturation and repetitiveness.

No band sounds quite like The Menstrual Cramps – and it just so happens it’s a sound I absolutely adore. Closest band might be this next one…

13: My Favourite Fact About Maggie – Smoking Gives You Big Tits

Guts for Starters – 2023 – Riot Grrrl
https://smokinggivesyoubigtits.bandcamp.com/album/guts-for-starters

“My Favourite Fact About Maggie,
Is that she’s fucking dead”

Look, sometimes, you just need jangly crusty riot grrrl punk screaming about how great it is that Thatcher is dead. What party is complete without that? Not a party I want to be at, that’s for sure.

14: Purge the Poison – MARINA ft. Pussy Riot

Ancient Dreams in a Modern Land – 2021 – Electropop

“Need to purge the poison, show us our humanity
All the bad and good, racism and misogyny
Nothing’s hidden anymore, capitalism made us poor”

I don’t know much about MARINA, but everything I’ve heard has been pretty darn based, and this is my favourite of the lot.

Featuring a guest verse from Pussy Riot, critiquing patriarchal capitalism in such an accessible pop style is a bold move and I respect the fuck out of it. This is a really nice song that is full of calls to action and making some slightly complex social and political ideas really accessible and clearly written. This is just such a cool song to exist, and I’m always happy to rediscover it every year or so when it comes back around for our birthdays.

15: Voice of the Voiceless – Rage Against The Machine

The Battle of Los Angeles – 1999 – Funk Metal

“Let there be no rich white life
We bound to respect
Cause and effect
Can’t ya smell tha smoke in tha breeze
My panther my brother we are at war until you’re free”

Oh come on, do I need to justify putting Rage Against The Machine on this list? Musical pioneers, one of the most creative guitarists and composers of the generation, and one of the biggest outspoken lefty bands we’ve quite possibly ever had.

Voice of the Voiceless is what I go for, as we like to platform voices which are stamped out and marginalized, so it feels apt, but really, anything on their first 3 albums would be appropriate.

16: The Guillotine – The Coup

Sorry To Bother You – 2012 – Alternative Hip-Hop

“We got hella people, they got helicopters
They got the bombs and we got the, we got the
We got the guillotine
We got the guillotine, you better run”

This is an old fave of mine – and honestly feels so much older than 2012. It has a timeless vibe, a smooth, funky hip-hop beat, but with a punky undertone, old school inspired bars that are a balance of dad hop cringe and also universally kind of based. All the guillotine imagery is just great for revolution-y music, it’s got a marching beat that is incredibly motivational, and it’s just a fun listen.

Yeah it’s a bit camp, but who isn’t? Certainly no one at Blizzard, that’s for sure.

17: Better Decide Which Side You’re On – Tom Robinson Band

Power in the Darkness – 1978 – Punk

“Waiting till the bully boys get you
Don’t make no kind of sense
And pretty soon there’ll be no room
For sitting on the fence”

Tom Robinson was a man I discovered through this playlist blog way back in 2020. I can’t remember what playlist, but this song absolutely spoke to me from the second I pressed play.

Motivated by the struggling life of a queer man in the 1970s, this song has a timeless edge to it, speaking the need to make a definitive statement whether you’re with gay liberation or against it.

But really, this can apply to a number of things. It is tempting to latch onto whatever privilege you may have, and use that as a way to sit on the fence and not get involved in social oppression discourse. But, as we all know, the time will come where sitting on the fence will leave you eventually toppling whichever way the wind blows, and with a much sorer bum than necessary.

Sitting on the fence when it comes to gay rights is inherently against gay rights. Sitting on the fence when it comes to fascism is inherently supporting fascism. You cannot take the middle ground on issues like this, as that is always beneficial of the oppressor, and never the oppressed.

And unless you’re exceedingly wealthy, the rest of your social privilege won’t save you when they eventually come for you.

I had the pleasure of seeing Tom Robinson (unfortunately without the band) with my Dad in Norwich late last year. I think it’s maybe the first pure music show I’ve been to with him that wasn’t also comedy oriented, and it was such a cool moment for me. An artist who my Dad grew up with, and who I discovered much later on, getting to experience together as he relived his musical career both in the band, and as a solo artist, regaling us with anecdotes of his journey of self-discovery, industry struggles, and philosophy on life and identity.

The man is a living legend, and a great example of remaining progressive throughout generational shifts, and not just returning to conservatism once it seems like it’s caught up with you. A true queer punk icon, and one who isn’t talked about nearly enough. So, I’ll use whatever small platform I have to remind us of his work, lest we forget one of the OGs.

18: Our Time Is Now – Diamond Head

Diamond Head – 2016 – Heavy Metal

“Kill all the fascists
Extinguish their breed
Hang all those bastards
From every tree”

Metal is a … let’s say politically diverse genre of music. I mean I guess all genres are, you’ll get people from all perspectives in most genres. But while Punk is a lot more vocally exclusionary of fascist and racist bands in the sound, Metal unfortunately has its fair share of conspiratorial libertarian and occasionally full-blown alt-right bands not all that far from the mainstream of the genre.

So it is always refreshing when you do get an old school metal band who just unequivocally say “yeah kill fascists” – with no ambiguity or metaphor or convoluted imagery.

I don’t know much about Diamond Head as people, but heck, anyone writing this song can’t be completely terrible. (Pls don’t let this sentence age terribly, I’ve been betrayed before.)
Classic Metal riffs, punk sensibilities, a beautiful package of protest rock.

19: Hangerz – Pussy Riot ft. VIC MENSA & Junglepussy

Hangerz – 2019 – Punk

“My body does not need advice from a priest”

Another oldie for us here. This one originated in our 2022 abortion playlist, and stuck in a couple of birthday playlists.

This just goes so hard. Pussy Riot always do. And the featured artists don’t skimp either. It’s honestly chilling, and unfortunately remained relevant since it was released.

This song really does pump you up to punch an anti Roe v Wade protestor in the fucking neck, and it hammers its point home flawlessly alongside that tone. The perfect band for this.

20: Give Us Something Worth Voting For – The Tuts

Update Your Brain – 2016 – Indie Pop Punk
https://thetuts.bandcamp.com/album/update-your-brain

“They say they’re gonna do this and that
They say they’re gonna change the world
They don’t care about ordinary folk
The system is a joke”

As we approach what is almost certain to be a landslide majority victory for the Labour Party and Kier Starmer in the next general election, at the cost of really any of the policies that actually emphasise a Labour position or any meaningful alternative to what the Tories are peddling, “Give Us Something Worth Voting For” is entirely a sentiment I think we can all relate to right now.

The Tuts capture that energy with bouncy feminist pop punk. It’s a sentiment we’re going to be feeling a lot in the run up to that fateful day, when we can at least finally be rid of the literal Tories after 15 odd years, so that’s something to party about, I guess?

21: What’s It All About? – Austerity Dogs

The Void – 2022 – Spoken Word Punk
https://austeritydogs.bandcamp.com/album/the-void

A favourite from our good friends at Austerity Dogs here, Jono Murray’s Post-Punk-Poetry is exactly the energy we love to see at Blizzard. Explicit rage, cheeky delivery, and all over an instrumental backdrop so fucking hard it puts Sleaford Mods to shame.

“What’s It All About” is a very succinct question in light of recent years. In its short runtime Jono really captures the manic stress of existing in this timeline as more and more shit happens without anyone seeming to give a shit.

This is the track that got me into the band. They have a lot of great work, spending a lot of time exploring different musical aesthetics behind the lyrics, but always being an incredibly earnest expression of working-class rage from one of Liverpool’s finest. Check them out, seriously, they’re incredible.

22: BOTHERED – JER

BOTHERED/UNBOTHERED – 2022 – Ska Punk
https://jerska.bandcamp.com/album/bothered-unbothered

“This country’s free, but it’s free for who?
Systems fundamentally hurting those who don’t look like you.”

Another hangover from last year’s birthday playlist, and a staple of our Best of 2022 list – Jer is a titan of the modern Ska Punk scene. Unapologetically queer, political, and really emphasizes the punk side of third wave ska.

Instrumentally incredibly tight, so much to say and delivered immaculately, if you’re into ska and haven’t already checked out this album you are missing the fuck out.

23: Work – SNAYX

Weaponized Youth: Part 1 – 2023 – Punk

“Do this, do that, I’m not workin’ like a dog
For the minimum wage and the satisfaction
When the stress kicks in, I hardly ever sleep
I haven’t felt creative even once this week”

This track I think is intensely relatable to anyone trying to make any kind of art whilst holding down a full-time job to survive. It is an audio breaking point where the thankless grind leaves you physically incapable of doing the things you love, and barely able to do the basic things to survive either.

It’s reminiscent of Kid Kapichi’s “Smash the Gaff” in terms of energy – just pure modern britpunk revival, and if you hadn’t noticed after like 4 years of doing these playlists, I’m an absolute sucker for that shit.

24: Black Tie – Grace Petrie

Queer as Folk – 2018 – Folk
https://gracepetrie.bandcamp.com/album/queer-as-folk

“And it’s a bloody nightmare
Tryna fight the spread of bigotry and fear
That’s uniting Piers Morgan and Germaine Greer”

What do I need to say about this one? Trans and gender non-conforming anthem of the century here, it is on every queer or trans playlist I do, and indeed most of the birthday ones.

This is such a feel-good song, a love letter to your younger self still struggling with gendered expectations of you. Not necessarily in a trans sense, but absolutely including that too. And a timeless artifact for this period of the trans liberation movement. (Except for the year drop of 2018, but if you ignore that the rest of it has aged like fine wine.)

25: Gandhi Mate Gandhi – Enter Shikari

A Flash Flood of Colour – 2012 – Electronicore

“See if we keep them silent then,
They’ll resort to violence and that’s how we criminalize change”

I really need to do a full piece on this album at some point – this is quite possibly the album that opened my eyes politically. This track in particular is just pure based monologuing about basically everything wrong with the hyper-capitalist societal structure, with heavy, dubstep adjacent electronic elements and hardcore screamed vocals.

Anyone who’s Shikari knowledge only goes as far as the Clap clap clap song, is hugely missing out on what I think might genuinely be one of the most punk acts going today. This is the album I’d most recommend to get into them, but also A Kiss for the Whole World is a beautiful, introspective, intricate ode to identity, the more social aspects of political impact, and existing in this world.

No two albums are quite alike with this band, but they’re all spectacular; this one is just the most Blizzard.

26: There’s Going To Be A Revolution – The Men That Will Not Be Blamed For Nothing

Double Negative – 2018
https://blamedfornothing.bandcamp.com/album/double-negative

“If I could learn to write, I’d write the queen a letter
I could tell her I’m at the end of my tether
If things don’t change, we’re coming on mass
Destroy the monarchy and the upper class”

Another old favourite here. Double Negative was a bit less grand a release than 2015’s “Not Your Typical Victorians” – but don’t underestimate it. This album was short, but it made the most of its runtime, creatively interpreting Victorian history, folklore, horror, and politics into a haunting and crusty punk assault on the ears.

One of my favourite cuts is this marching, building revolutionary track, narrating the sick and impoverished rage of a working-class man reaching breaking point, and getting ready to overthrow the head of state and create an equitable utopia for the people so often abused and suppressed in the country.

Despite the Victorian setting, this song translates incredibly well to the current social political climate. This is one of the great things this band does, using Victorian history and folklore to satirise modern day society and politics, and this might be one of the simplest and most brilliant examples of that.

You keep the steampunk aesthetic, but you can absolutely sing and play this at modern marches and protests. This can absolutely motivate you to overthrow the power, and mobilise socialist solidarity against our shared oppressors.

27: Revolution Lover – Left at London

Transgender Street Legend, Vol. 1 – 2018 – Indie Pop
https://leftatlondon.bandcamp.com/album/transgender-street-legend-vol-1

“When its here, we’ll be side-by-side
I know we’ll make it out of this one alive”

This is a sweet, artfully indie tune all about the joy and experience of queer love, the comfort felt in the face of a hostile world, knowing that you have each other to face this together, and whatever the world throws at you, you will always have each other.

It’s so uplifting and sweet. It’s not a tone I get to include on these playlists very often, but I feel this one implements that theme without downplaying the harder parts of that experience and the harsher reality of societal treatment. You’ve got the undertones of the title and chorus. The mere act of being in love in a queer dynamic, is revolutionary – which is beautiful, but also shouldn’t be the way it is. People should just be able to be in love without it being politicised, and this song captures the dichotomy of that feeling beautifully.

It’s just a nice song okay, let me have this one.

28: No Mercy For Transphobe Scum – Oliva Neutered John

No Mercy For Transphobe Scum – 2022 – Blackened Death Metal
https://blackeneddeath.bandcamp.com/album/no-mercy-for-transphobe-scum

“At this stage I won’t even pretend
I don’t want apologies, I want revenge”

Sometimes I know I’m going to love a band from their band name alone. Clearly this is one of those time. Coming from our best of 2022 list and reprising in last year’s Queer Wrath playlist – and being on my own personal life soundtrack for 27 – this is, unsurprisingly, one of my favourite songs of the last couple of years.

Not only is the band name brilliant, and the song unapologetically aggressive against transphobic hate, but the production is ridiculously good. Really tight extreme metal with hardcore elements, riffage that possesses you and gets you pumped in a way that I think only Limp Bizkit’s Break Stuff had succeeded in doing before. (And believe it or not, I do mean that as a compliment.)

This is a fuck shit up anthem if ever I’ve heard one. And, unlike Limp Bizkit, it’s actually saying something worthwhile and meaningful.

As someone who is very much on the receiving end of efforts to legislate us out of existence and access to healthcare, this unrelenting onslaught of guttural growling against transphobic hate is so unbelievably cathartic, and has lifted me out of more than one depression spiral by converting that into sheer rage, and I am so happy for it.

29: Morbid Obsessions – We are the Union

Ordinary Life – 2021 – Ska Punk
https://austeritydogs.bandcamp.com/album/the-void

“and let go of these morbid obsessions
every thought feels like a confession
she said, she said, she said:
“if i get one life, gonna do what I want””

We are the Union might be the best personification of what being trans sounds like in audible form for me. Ska is just hella gay now, deal with it.

This whole album is an absolute trans must listen, delving into experiences of coming out, gender dysphoria, presentation, oppression, and really the whole experience.

This track is so bouncy and joyful, and is an ode to enjoying your life as you are, and expressing yourself in the most authentic way possible, and instructing both yourself to let go of internalized obsessions over what gender is and should be, and indeed to anyone else who is obsessed in making sure that everyone else conforms to their binary view of gender.

This track is the sound of letting go of all of that, and it is exhilarating. Recommend this to everyone, but especially baby and recent out queers, there’s a good chance this will speak to you as much as if not more than it does to me.

30: Beds Are Burning – Midnight Oil

Diesel And Dust – 1987 – Blues Rock

“The time has come, a fact’s a fact
It belongs to them, let’s give it back”

Weirdly I first discovered this song through a cover by AWOLNATION when researching for the best of 2022 playlist – not realizing it was a cover at first. Then last year Todd in the Shadows did a One Hit Wonderland video on this song, and good lord Midnight Oil are cool.

Musically weird and committed to just making what they want to, and not using a taste of huge chart success to sell out. They’re very politically outspoken and not at all shy of wearing their beliefs proudly on their sleeves as they challenge oppression and injustice where they see it. They’re just a really cool band – and this one track managed to make huge chart success whilst bringing light to certain indigenous Australian groups who were still getting their land pillaged from them and being treated continuously horribly.

All of that concealed in the tune of a slightly bluesy New-Wave, Alt Rock track from one of the most underrated gems of the genre. It’s important, it’s musically distinct, and it’s just very Blizzard.

31: Class Struggle – Dog Park Dissidents

The Pink and Black Album – 2023 – Queercore
https://dogparkdissidents.bandcamp.com/album/the-pink-and-black-album

“Cause it don’t mean fuck
We’re allowed to suck cock
When the cops knock knock
For probation fees that never were paid”

This is the intersectional anthem of a generation. They’re not the first people to notice it of course, but it’s a point that bears repeating a lot. Gay liberation is heavily class policed. And once the 1% gays are allowed to do their thing, they do love to pull up a ladder behind them.

But that’s only the start of the battle.

Not just class too – we’re seeing this now with the discourse between a certain generation of gays and trans people. Solidarity and unity is essential for queer liberation. We don’t get true queer liberation without class revolution. This is a brilliant punk anthem for that intersectional revolution.

32: Gaddaar – Bloodywood

Rakshak – 2022 – Folk Metal
https://bloodywood.bandcamp.com/album/rakshak

“I see a state turning to faith
Faith turn into hate
Hate turn into votes”

This song narrowly missed my best of 2022 playlist, on account of it actually being released in 2021 before the album, and I’d managed to miss it in that year. But I’m still second guessing that technicality, as this might honestly just be one of the greatest songs of all time. Indian folk metal with Nu Metal influences, politicising and satirizing the corrupt links between religion and politics around the world.

The riffs are some of the most intricately crafted in the genre, the breakdown one of the filthiest, the switching rapping to guttural vocal styles handled expertly. Not only is this one of the most musically interesting things to come out of Metal perhaps since its inception 50 odd years ago; it just stands alone as one of the most important pieces of art to surface over the last few years too.

Religion is often politically weaponised. We’re seeing it again with Trump, winning over a voting block of people in a religion he hasn’t really shown any actual belief in ever, but successfully conning them into thinking he will uphold their values. (And to be fair, he might, but not for the same reasons, just because they happen to hate the same people and things, and conveniently hating them will help him latch onto power yet again.)

And in particularly hyper-religious states, where religious leaders and political leaders have a direct communication and influence over each other, this is how we end up with this neo-fascist nonsense we’ve been dealing with for at least the last 40 odd years.

33: Silence is Violence – Comeback Clit

Howl Still – 2023 – Riot Grrrl
https://comebackclit.bandcamp.com/album/howl-still

Comeback Clit were a refreshing discovery for me as someone who simps hard for feminist hardcore punk. I’ve not heard anyone who sounds quite as raw and tight as this band, conveying concise and incredibly important feminist messaging through an onslaught of hardcore riffs and vocals, being the kind of music that I would absolutely mosh to if I wasn’t the world’s biggest wuss when it comes to moshing.

The sound makes you want to move, and I have put on this EP an embarrassing number of times and danced alone in my own flat to it, screaming along with the lyrics I can identify. So yeah, take that patriarchy. Don’t mess with me, I’m fucking hardcore.

34: Centrist – Slightly West

Fearmongrel – 2023 – Alternative Rock
https://slightlywest.bandcamp.com/album/fearmongrel

“It’s so hard to choose
Between human rights and power abuse”

This deep cut is a perfect satire of centrism and fence-sitting and “both sides are just as bad as each other” mentalities. Possibly the most underground band on this list, or at least of the ones who I’m not directly connected to via existing friendships.

Slightly West make grungey discordant punk that scratches all of my niche audio itches. It’s not easy listening, but it is genuinely catchy, and full of decent hooks not dissimilar from someone like X-Ray Spex.

This is another example of an artist making cool and interesting music for the sake of making that kind of music, and it is wonderful and refreshing to hear that. The whole EP is great, and the artist is well worth keeping an eye on. Whatever he comes up with next, it’ll definitely be lyrically fantastic, and sonically bizarre. So, if like me, that’s your thing, well worth adding this artist to your library.

35: Yosemite (Song for the Ahwahnechee) – Iniko

Jericho – 2023 – Soul

“Only I know who I am
I am not woman or man”

I am absolutely not qualified to go in depth onto the deeper cultural meaning of this song, and my research proved difficult, so I don’t feel comfortable attempting to analyse this too thoroughly. But there is a clear theme of transcending gender binaries throughout this track that is very Blizzard, and it is always good to platform the voices of non-white artists.

The ethereal, soulful tones of Iniko here move me in a way that few other voices do – combined with distinct afrobeat influence, to create an immensely unique listening experience and one that I think everyone should experience at least once, just to get a taste of it. It’s easy to forget music is art, but this track really cements itself as such.

36: $wing – Fever 333

$wing – 2023 – Trap Metal

“I can’t keep asking y’all
For the real story bout what happened y’all
When you was building off the backs of all
Them bodies that you broke while making capital”

Fever 333’s first new single with new band members does not pull its punches. It’s everything great about the band turned up to 11.

Jason’s bars are uncompromising, the trap beats seamlessly integrated into the foundation of the track, and the killer riffs hammering home the tracks central conceit. This is anti-capitalist punk at its best. The main hook of the song being that massive chorus, and a call to action to utilise the worker power that we all hold.

We are the victims, but we are also the necessary tools in order for the oppressors to actually maintain their societal position. Start swinging fists and bats and very quickly, that notion of power dissipates. They should need to compromise to you, not the other way around.

37: Lifejackets – Random Hand

Random Hand – 2023 – Ska Punk
https://random-hand.bandcamp.com/album/random-hand

“Doors shut
Life Jackets over subscribed
Stay put
Nothing for you to survive”

Not quite as good as Faintest Idea – but their 2023 self-titled album was pretty solid.

I particularly love Lifejackets, as a track all about the impending climate apocalypse, and the lack of contingency planning for the lives of the poorest people, who generally contributed the least to the active decline of the climate and this eventuality.

It’s distinct from their other work, definitely more emphasis on the Ska than the punk, but not losing that more manic energy, and huge chorus riffs to keep it varied and interesting. It’s just incredibly well put together and gets stuck in my head all the time.

Fair play to them, they know how to make a memorable hook, and the songwriting is top tier here. Definitely give this album a listen if you haven’t already.

38: Civilised – Tripsun

Kill The Dream – 2023 – Emo
https://tripsun.bandcamp.com/album/kill-the-dream

“What does it mean to be civilised?
What determines the value of a life?”

Featuring in our best of 2023 list, Tripsun’s “Kill the Dream” might be one of the most important albums of the year, and Civilised exemplifies why.

Amplifying voices of colour is incredibly important in punk – a genre that absolutely is not just a white thing, but like many other art forms, has been overwhelmingly presented that way to appeal to whiter audiences, and suppress non-white voices.

In this Tripsun track, the singer laments on the experience of the singer, having to tread incredibly carefully around white British people, as anything from a non-white person that could be even bent to be taken as disrespectful, can lead to drastic and sometimes violent consequence.

The song homes in on the concept of civility, and questions its value, as a set of traits seemingly designed by white people to make non-white people be less threatening and more agreeable just for existing as themselves with their own cultural heritage and roots.

It’s an incredibly thought-provoking song, delivered in a melodic emo-tinged punk style that makes it sonically incredibly accessible, yet lyrically challenging to the people it most needs to challenge. The whole album is great. “Apathy” is another strong contender too, definitely check it out.

39: He’s a Man – Bob Vylan

Humble As The Sun – 2024 – Grime Punk
https://bobvylan.bandcamp.com/album/humble-as-the-sun

“All these rules, things he just can’t say, he just can’t understand them (uh uh)
Misses the days when he could count on Clarkson, May and Hammond
Now it’s only mediocre gear that he can get his hands on (wahey)”

Bob Vylan came back this year with their new album “Humble as the Sun”. Following on from the success of “The Price of Life” this record is a bit more disjointed and less conceptually consistent than the former, but the songs still slap with their trademark amalgamation of London street music, blending genres and scenes effortlessly to speak to a whole generation of disenfranchised and marginalized brits.

He’s a Man appeared on our Best of 2023 playlist, releasing a few months before the album, and is a joyous taking down of a specific type gammony misogynistic man. The track is full of clever wordplay, astute criticisms of toxic masculinity culture, and soaring punk hooks. This is Bob Vylan doing what they do best, and satirizes a kind of person we all know far too many of. It’s so satisfying to blast and dance to, and really reflects the kind of guys we deliberately try to market against, so it’s a shoo-in.

40: John Barleycorn – Cruel Mother

Cut Down For The Earth – 2024 – Folk Doom
https://cruelmother.bandcamp.com/album/cut-down-for-the-earth-2

“Oh, John Barleycorn, Death to the ancient Corn God
Oh, John Barleycorn, Cut down for the earth”

This was obviously making it here. It’s less political than our usual picks, but this is just a great drinking and partying song, and it features our own Kirstie on rhythm guitar – so clearly a must have for any Blizzard celebration!

Cruel Mother combine the vast history of English folk murder ballads with doomy riffs, creating a flavour of folk metal that has been really neglected given the rich tapestry of content traditional English folk and folklore has for musical potential.

Taking cues from Black Sabbath and Skyclad, Cruel Mother fill a niche whilst giving familiar and tightly constructed compositions that feel timeless. If it weren’t for the more obvious electronic production elements, could have very easily sounded like authentic folk from pretty much any era of English history.

John Barleycorn itself is framed as a murder ballad, but moreso as a metaphor for the brewing of beer process, making it really silly yet fun and a hint of darkness that makes it right at home with the rest of the more overtly murder and creepy EP.

The whole record is a joy to listen to, they’ve done a fantastic job here as their first proper release, and I can’t wait to hear what they put out next.

Editor’s note: I fucking love you, Jonny, you’re so cute xoxo

Also we just dropped a video for this song YESTERDAY (the actual day you sent me the copy for this blog, so your lateness in writing it actually worked in our favour) and here it is:

41: Upside Down – Popes of Chillitown

Work Hard, Play Hard, See You in the Graveyard – 2018 – Ska Punk https://popesofchillitown.bandcamp.com/album/work-hard-play-hard-see-you-in-the-graveyard

“I might step back
and try to retract
because I haven’t got an answer for that.
It’s not in my notes
so I’ll take a repose;
obviously I don’t want to lose any votes.”

Another song making fun of fence-sitters, more specifically in politics here, about how politicians will just avoid saying anything that hasn’t been focus tested, and how they clearly don’t actually stand for anything other than their own power. With the leaders of both main parties really falling into this category, just one of them more overtly evil and fascist-y, you can see why this song is at the forefront of my mind a lot lately.

And also, Popes of Chillitown make really great manic ska punk that is too fast to actually move to, but you know we’re going to try anyway, how can you not when it goes this hard?

42: Sour – Witch Fever

Congregation – 2022 – Post-Punk

“Yeah we incite this violence
Nothing ever changed in silence”

Witch Fever’s set at this year’s Manchester Punk Festival has gotta be one of the best shows I’ve ever been to. The ambience of this band is unreal – they defy categorization.

With influences from classic Metal, gothic horror, post-punk and grunge, Witch Fever take Riot Grrrl and paint it with dark, demonic aesthetics, which elevate the dark lyrical themes of abuse and religious grooming to incredible heights.

I don’t think they played this particular track sadly – but I love this one for the refrain “Nothing ever changed in silence” as a constant reminder, with really any injustice, silence is never going to make any progress. Violence as a tool for protest has been successful in the past, including in many revolutions that are today universally agreed to have been beneficial. And when you’re dealing with specifically people with lots of power to control, coerce and abuse, a violent response feels not only apt, but sometimes the only way to survive.

I fucking love this band, and this album, and if you’ve not heard them yet you are missing OUT.

43: Fuck This – Follow Your Dreams

The Half Life of Teaspoons – 2020 – Hardcore

“Fuck This” is a sentiment that I already related to hard in 2020 – and have just pack bonded with much more aggressively since then. I can’t even make out all the things I’m supposed to be saying “fuck this” to in this song, but I can make out enough of them that I vibe with it. Just fuck this all, frankly.

44: Knighthoods Are for Cunts – Pizzatramp

Do You Know Who You Look Like? – 2020 – Crossover Thrash
https://pizzatramp.bandcamp.com/album/do-you-know-who-you-look-like-split-w-incisions

Anyone who expects you to call them “Sir” or “Lord” unironically is the most cringe person you will ever meet. No, I will not call you by your Larp name, calm the fuck down.

45: Accelerate – Riskee & The Ridicule

Body Bag Your Scene – 2019 – Grime Punk
https://riskeeandtheridicule.bandcamp.com/album/body-bag-your-scene-2019

“It only takes one snowflake to start an avalanche”

Witch Fever were all round one of the best shows I saw at this year’s Manchester Punk Festival – but in terms of sheer performance energy and charisma, Riskee & The Ridicule were fucking spectacular.
So much so that after their set I was pretty much wiped for the weekend, but god it was worth it.

Pulling the best elements of Post-Hardcore, with Grime infused lyricism, Riskee have a really distinct sound that separates them from the slew of other hybrid Rap/Rock bands we’re seeing now (not a complaint by the way, I’ve always been a nu-metal apologist and idgaf). But Riskee do something different. It’s full of punk attitude, righteous working-class rage against an industry and system that wants to keep them suppressed, or shaped into an acceptably bland product to milk as much money off as possible.

A lot of their songs focus on the struggles of being an independent artist, the long road to success, and all the labels and stations who refused to back them on the way up – but the reason I opted for this one specifically is that quoted line.

As I said before, snowflake iconography is kind of our thing, so “it only takes one snowflake to start an avalanche” is just perfectly us.

On top of that this chorus hook is so infectious and earwormy that I find myself singing it absent-mindedly doing all kinds of menial tasks and having to whack it on then and there. They write a damn catchy tune, and this is one of their greatest.

46: Numeration Dub – King Prawn

The Fabulous New Sounds Of – 2019 – Ska
https://kingprawn.bandcamp.com/album/the-fabulous-new-sounds-of

“There is a lion in me
What to fear for something that’ll stop me
There is no lion in you
What’s a man held captive by his world view?”

I finally got to see King Prawn this year! Missed them in 2019, so I was glad to catch them. Although they didn’t play this song, so 0/10 worst concert of my life.

I jest, it was phenomenal – but I think you’re always going to have a specific attachment to the first song you really fall in love within a bands catalogue. Picking up this album in 2019, this opening track blew me the fuck away.

It’s Ska Punk yes, but it’s more than that, really heavy Soul and Dub influence. Whilst retaining the heaviness of Punk, the Ska absolutely seems to come first here, making an incredibly satisfying, rhythmic and thumping driving and other adjectives song, to be one of the best pieces of motivational music I’ve ever heard.

I don’t have any great insight into the meaning of this song, but I do know that it makes me feel empowered to fight in a losing battle towards revolution – and while it looks bleak, this song makes me feel like we can actually achieve that. And if enough people believe that? Well, just see if they can stop us.

10/10 tune, and they better have it in their next setlist, otherwise I’ll be mildly disappointed.

(I cannot overstate, the show was phenomenal, I’m just being a little whiny bitch, go see them when you get a chance to regardless, their backcatalog is one of the best you’ll hear, and whatever cuts the reach for you’ll have a grand ol’ time.)

47: Fuck The Tories – The Kunts ft. Terry Edwards

Fuck The Tories – 2022 – Punk
https://kuntandthegang.bandcamp.com/track/fuck-the-tories-single-mix

“You might say you don’t vote Labour
Or you wouldn’t vote Lib Dem
But the time has come for anyone
That isn’t fucking them”

The REAL 2022 Christmas number one. Fuck the sausage roll cunts.

Nothing makes me feel both this festive and also offsets the rage I feel about the last 14 years of Tory bullshit in a positive and uplifting way. If we do lose the Tories this year, I may have to take this off my playlists, and that’ll be bittersweet.

But I’d like to put that at least in part down to the last 4 years of Kunt Christmas bids. Before they started doing that, the Tories were winning elections – so clearly something is working.

48: Mutual Aid – Faintest Idea

The Voice Of Treason – 2012 – Ska Punk
https://faintestidea.bandcamp.com/album/the-voice-of-treason

“We are the Many and They are the few”

And to finish us off, it’s this old favourite. I’ve gushed about Faintest Idea on here more times than I can count, and will likely do many more times in the near future. So let’s just say there is a reason I have this as one of two songs that people walk out to.

If “Desperate Measures” is our mission statement, Mutual Aid is our motivator.

A real classic of socialist rhetoric, hammering home a feeling of unwavering solidarity, empowering us as a collective to stand up to any oppressor, no matter how great, and fight for each other and with each other for a better future and society for the many, not the 1%. We all have more in common with each other than we do the rich. Even people on a median salary are likely closer to hitting the poverty line than they are breaching the 1% figures. That is such an important thing to remember, that I cannot hammer it home enough.

We are for the many, and if we’re all for each other too, we’re unstoppable. This is exactly what A Bug’s Life taught us, and what this song celebrates and drives on.

There we go! I tried to keep these brief, but this is still pushing 9000 words, so hey-ho I guess.
If you got this far, congratulations! You probably like my point of view and sense of humour, in which case you should definitely check out our upcoming live shows in Manchester featuring both me, and people I find very funny here: https://www.outsavvy.com/organiser/blizzard-comedy

Or if you’re not in the Northwest of England very often – you can catch our online shows here: Twitch.tv/blizzardcomedy

See you next April for the 6th birthday!