The plight of an aging punk rocker is an interesting one to say the least. In your late twenties, after a decade and a half of full throttle, angst-driven records and songs about the struggles of counter cultures, how many more fast, gritty, and snotty songs can you take before you just feel over it. This happened to me a couple years ago, and I think A WILHELM SCREAM’s Ruiner was the last record whose blazing speed and technically sound thrashing left me feeling any kind of semblance to the feeling I got when I first heard Dude Ranch, Punk in Drublic, Let’s Talk About Feelings or How To Clean Everything. But as I sit on my couch with my dog chewing on his bone under my legs at 9:30 on a Friday night (because, yes, that’s what us old guys do) and turn on Antillectual’s Start From Scratch!, that feeling I got 15 years ago starts to bubble in my chest. That feeling that you are listening to something unquantifiably special.

I suppose it is important to note that Willem, Rieuks and Tom from Antillectual all are getting older, too. Two years removed from their last full length, Testimony, the bulk of the songs that make up Start From Scratch! certainly come off as a lot more “mature” than the bands previous catalog. The track after track of blazing speed and overt “beat you over the head” brash-ness is oddly vacant on Start from Scratch!, instead replaced with tactful restraint and technicality. In fact, if I wanted to create a mix CD (see, I am old) of the best examples of what it sounds like when fast punk rock bands “mature” without jumping the shark, I would probably put at least two songs off of Start From Scratch! on there. “Buyers Remorse,” “Every Crisis is a Moral Crisis” and “Chinese Takeover” are perfect examples of how a band can hold back just a little bit and still achieve genuine, passionate, and socially aware songs. Even though a good half of Start From Scratch! lacks the speed and severity of previous works, the album as a whole is still chalk full of all the emotion and idealism that fueled the bands previous catalog. But all of this is not to say that Antillectual has lost it when it comes to playing fast punk rock. “Cut The Ground From Under Our Feet,” “Some of My Best Friends Are Meat Eaters” and “Our Hearts” posses all of the raw emotion and energy that made Testimony and Silencing Civilization such great records. I guess what I am trying to get at is that Antillectual haven’t seriously jumped the shark at all, even if the temp and beats per minute of Start From Scratch! might suggest otherwise. They’ve merely figured out how to grow as a band while still maintaining all the youth and vigor that made them want to play music in the first place.

The only two downsides I can find in this record are both pretty minimal, but I feel should be noted, and both stem from a small culture clash. Did I forget to mention that Antillectual is from Nijmegn, Holland? Oh, well, they are. Don’t worry, they sing in English, so you don’t have to learn Dutch to be able to listen to Start From Scratch! or any of the bands previous records (as dumb side note, I once spent twenty-one days surrounded by four Dutch guys and, to this day, still cannot say “hello” or any other word in Dutch). But having said that, I don’t think many American listeners are going to be able to understand related to the track “Kraken gaat door!” (loosely translated to “Squatting Continues!”). There isn’t exactly a large, thriving squat punk scene in the States. The only other qualm I can find with this record is this: It is pretty interesting (to say the least) to have someone not from America sing you a song called “America’s Worst Role Model.” But, we all burned that bridge with PROPAGANDHI 15 years ago, so I guess we can cut Antillectual the same slack. At least Antillectual isn’t that preachy about it all, either.

I remember when I was younger and I started to notice when my favorite bands began to slow down, and music ciritics and shitty zine reviewers would constantly refer to these records as “mature.” It used to bum me out so fucking bad. But, I can safely say that I get it now. As my bones ache and my alarm goes off every day at 5:55 in the morning, the idea of “fast music” becomes a little bit less appealing. And that is what makes Start From Scratch! something special. It’s the way that Antillectual has managed to “mature” and “grow” as a band, and the ways that they have been able to turn the knob back some without ever losing sight of the type of band they are and where they came from. They will always be the same socially aware and politically charged band they have always been, regardless of how fast they sing those socially aware and politically charged songs.

Antillectual (Lock Jaw Records)