Conflict to Release New Album 'This Much Remains,' New Single Available Now

English punk band Conflict is set to release the new album This Much Remains, the band's first in over two decades. A new single from the album, which will hit shelves on April 25, is available now. Listen to it below.

Conflict formed in 1981 in Eltham, a district of Southeast London, when frontman Colin Jerwood, inspired by early encounters with the Pistols ‘Spunk’ bootleg and following The Clash on tour, struck up a friendship with Crass and set about crafting a whole new kind of punk that totally upped the ante in terms anger and confrontation. Crass, the renowned anarchist punk collective, having got Conflict started by releasing their debut single ‘The House That Man Built’ in 1982 on Crass Records, ended in 1984 as they had always intended. Now it was up to Conflict to pick up the baton and run with it. And they did, charging into the battle lines of authority. A genuine threat. An unstoppable battering-ram of power. THE UNGOVERNABLE FORCE.

The years that followed saw Conflict go from strength to strength, and from threat to threat, peaking on the 18th of April in 1987 at the London Brixton Academy for the ‘Gathering of the 5,000’ concert. It was an ambitious gathering of the tribes. A climax and explosion of rage and rebellion that inevitably ended up in a police provoked full-scale riot across Brixton with police injuries, arrests, and with the band hopelessly in debt and banned from the majority of major London and UK venues.

Undeterred, Conflict continued into the 90s with their acclaimed ‘Conclusion’ album and remained a mainstay of the live punk circuit throughout. However, after more than two decades since the release of their (2003) ‘There’s No Power Without Control’ album, the band are poised to finally release a new album and ‘This Much Remains’ is set for release on April 25th through Mortarhate/ Cadiz Music.

Featuring sixteen brand new Conflict creations, the album sees the band keeping one eye on their eventful past, and the other firmly on moving forward, both musically and politically. Animal Liberation are still at the forefront of Conflict’s collective minds, giving a voice to the voiceless on songs such as ‘A Mother’s Milk’ and ‘Shut The F*ck Up’, whilst their anger at world governments will never dissipate. “It’s the same old system and the same old song, forty years later and they’ve still got it wrong,” bellows Colin, still with complete conviction on ‘The Collusion Exclusion’. This anger, alongside themes of personal loss, environmental issues and those ‘profit over people’ billionaires like Bezos, Musk and Trump, find Conflict at their most inspired and invigorated.

‘This Much Remains’ also features an appearance by the late Benjamin Zephaniah on the track ‘Cut The Crap’. Benjamin’s relationship with Conflict goes right back to the infamous Brixton Academy gig in 1987 where he performed with the band and it’s right that his voice is found here, with additional lyrics by recent addition to the band line-up, dual vocalist Fiona Friel (formally of Coventry punks Dragster).

“Benjamin is a legend, and I really felt a weight of responsibility when writing the adjoining lyrics to this song,” admits Fiona. “I had some of his books, so I went to peruse through them and started with ‘Windrush Child’ as I felt the subject matter would tie in well.  Immediately I saw the line “I am history” and that’s all I needed. I put the book straight down and wrote and wrote and wrote. So much so, once in the studio I had to cut over half of what I had written. I hope I’ve done him proud.”

The maddening insanity of global politics is never far from Conflict’s agenda. In the album’s title track Fiona takes on the role of the Government in the song, opposing Colin’s anarcho rhetoric, whilst ‘The Collusion Exclusion’ is, says Fiona, “about how we are divided and set against each other in order to maintain control, unwittingly colluding in our own oppression. The more we fight amongst ourselves, the more they can exploit the situation to their advantage. Colin wrote the first verse and chorus, and I just finished it off, with my version of the chorus and a second verse. I wanted to use the imagery of a pantomime, as watching what’s happening feels like one sometimes. I mean, Boris Johnson and Donald Trump look like caricatures of human beings, it’s absurd that anyone would vote for them, but they did and have done again in the case of Trump. They are using the devices of turning people against each other. “Look over there! That other poor person is your enemy, not me, the billionaire”.

‘This Much Remains’ is the sound of a band that continues to surprise and progress, decades after it first begun.

“Musically we wanted it to evolve from the last records but still have elements of that classic Conflict angry sound that thousands of people fell in love with,” summarises guitarist Gav King. “This album will not disappoint the diehard supporters and should garner a new wave of activists.”

Conflict Live Dates

30/03 SCARBOROUGH PUNK FESTIVAL UK
04/04 LES TANNERIES, DIJON FR
05/04 LE KILOWATT, VITRY-SUR-SEINE FR
06/04 CERCLE SAINT-CHARLES, MONTAIGNE-SUR-SAMBRE BE
03/05 THE UNDERGROUND, BRADFORD UK
16/05 LOST LANE, DUBLIN IE
17/05 THE DEER’S HEAD, BELFAST NI
05/06 BUMS, BARROW-IN-FURNESS UK
06/06 AUDIO, GLASGOW UK
07/06 LA BELLE ANGELE, EDINBURGH UK
08/06 STAR & GARTER, MANCHESTER UK
17-19/07 POD PAROU FESTIVAL CZ
25/07 DLB FESTIVAL, FERRARA IT
26/07 REFUSE FESTIVAL, PEINE DE
09/08 REBELLION, BLACKPOOL UK
29/08 ENCORE, SUNDBYBERG SE
30/08 DALFESTIVALEN, DALSJÖFORS, SE
31/08 TBA, COPENHAGEN DK
09/10 THE ANVIL, BOURNEMOUTH UK
10/10 THE CASTLE & FALCON, BIRMINGHAM UK
11/10 THE FACEBAR, READING UK

Picture Credit: Simon Balaam

To post a comment, you must register and login.