 
The Transplants are back with their third studio
album ‘In A Warzone’ and it comes
a massive 8 years since their second studio album
‘Haunted Cities’ and you can easily
forgive The Transplants for the long wait for
album number 3 as Tim Armstrong has been extremely
busy with Rancid over the past couple of years
and Travis Barker has been hard at work with Blink
182 and also his own solo material as well.
With each album The Transplants change their sound
slightly and I am sure a lot of people will be
pleased with the sound and feel of ‘In A
Warzone’ as it see’s The Transplants
adopt a very angry sound which is sounding more
like Tim Armstrong’s own band Rancid than
ever before, the album opens with the title track
‘In A Warzone’ and the opens moments
of the song features Tim Armstrong and Skinhead
Rob shouting “In a warzone” over and
over again whilst Barker lets rip with some machine
gun drumming giving the song a big kick arse sound.
‘See It To Believe It’ sounds like
it could have been lifted from the Rancid back
catalogue, the song is a fast and furious punk
rock anthem which is full of attitude and chant-a-long
moments which really gives the song lastability.
‘Back To You’ one of many gems on
the album the song is a fierce punk track with
a poppy nature as The Transplants go down a route
that they have never gone down before but it is
easy to understand why they have as the individual
members of The Transplants have been churning
out songs of this nature in their own bands for
years which has made it so easy for The Transplants
to follow the winning formula.
‘Come Around’ is another pop-punk
track which is easily one of the best tracks on
the album as you have Barker laying down some
tasty drum beats whilst Armstrong gives out a
solid vocal performance which reminds me of the
punk meets reggae solo album he released back
in 2007.
‘Something Different’ is exactly what
the song title says and different from anything
else on the album, the song features a funky guitar
groove running throughout and it also features
a return to the rap and hip hop attitude that
was featured in the earlier days of the Transplants.
‘Any Of Them’ opens with chants of
“go, go, go” and then goes into a
explicit rant , ‘Silence’ is a short
punk rock by numbers track which reminds me of
the days of the skull and bones cover self titled
Rancid album, whilst ‘Completely Detach’
is easily the heaviest track on the album reminding
of how the Gallows sound these days with Wade
Macneil on vocals.
The majority of ‘In A Warzone’ is
solid sounding but there are a few odd songs on
offer such as ‘It’s A Problem’
and ‘Gravestones And Burial Plots’
but luckily by the time the punchy closing track
‘Exit The Wasteland’ graces the airwaves
you have forgot about these moments and are left
punching the air in a frantic way whilst chanting
“Exit the wasteland”.
Overall ‘In A Warzone’ is a return
to form for The Transplants it may sound nothing
like their outstanding self titled debut album
but it also sounds nothing like their second album
‘Haunted Cities’ which was met with
a big mixed reaction and instead it see’s
The Transplants stay true to their roots whilst
also edging closer to the sound of their main
bands.
4/5
Review by Trigger
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