DUB WAR
Westgate Under Fire (Earache)
Peeking over the edge of the platform to get a glimpse of the oncoming train only for it to fall out of the sky on top you, Dub War’s third studio album Westgate Under Fire descends on the listener with a similar blunt force.
Their first in 25 years, it’s clear from the start that Newport’s Benji Webbe and co. have decided to skip the ‘feeling out’ period often customary in the first few musical rounds of a new album and instead land the heavy musical blows early on.
The weighty rap/rock touch of Cypress Hill and Rage Against The Machine can be clearly detected, whilst the album’s pedal-to-the-metal approach barely abates until its penultimate track: a surprising, yet most welcome, cover of Al Green’s Let’s Stay Together. Political, discordant and relentless, Dub War’s return ought to both delight older followers and attract new ones to their message-laden, Welsh-infused take on the genre.
words OLIVER ROBERT MOORE-HOWELLS
