Reviewed by: Sieto Kooijker
Ambassadors Of Shalom are an up-and-coming three piece band from Manchester, England. The band was formed in January 2012 after playing an acoustic gig. Within a year they managed to get signed by the US based label Thumper Punk Records, home of bands like False Idle, The Absolved, The Hoax and Jump Ship Quick.
About two years after forming Ambassadors Of Shalom are releasing their debut album Abdicate Self. The band takes off strong with their first song Astray. AOS continues to be strong with This Ain’t Home, which talks about keeping your eyes fixed on what is above. It’s exactly what you want to hear with punk. High energy punk rock songs with straight forward in-your-face christian lyrics.
Most of the album is pretty solid. Songs like Opposite, The Enemy and We Don’t Need It turn up the tempo a bit. Than there is a nice punk version of the classic hymn Nothing But The Blood.
The album finishes strong with the last two songs Victory, one of the few more poppy songs on the album and It Is Finished, which is probably the most aggressive song on the album.
Ambassadors Of Shalom’s debut album leaves me a bit with mixed feelings. It has some very good quality punk rock songs, but also quite a few that might have needed some improvement. Also some might question the quality on the production side, but hey, it’s street-punk, so it needs to have some raw-edge.
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