Easily as good as any punk release you’ll hear in 2011.
Expecting the genre of punk rock to do something wholly original in this, its fourth decade, would seem to be asking a lot. But if there’s a lesson we learn from Iceage’s New Brigade, it is that by doggedly ignoring trends and following one’s own path, it is still possible to happen on something that gleams like new. Four young men from suburban Copenhagen, Iceage draw from a deep pool of influences – familiar post-punk touchstones like Wire and Joy Division, the stirring tempos of hardcore and the shrill guitar dissonance of black metal, the snotty swagger of early-80s working class punk movement Oi! – but somehow bind it into something strangely fresh.