Lets Finish What We Started

As '90s groups had seemingly sifted through the last ashes of punk's pyre, the new bands on the block began intensively mining a previously little explored musical vein: post-punk. The Duel, however, refused to go down that pit, preferring to reignite punk's fire once more. It's a simple enough proposition, but rather than bending old-school's lights through a modern prism, as so many groups had done before them, this quintet instead re-create it, capturing both the original style and feel of the time. Proudly wearing their myriad influences on their sleeves, Duel, with saber-like accuracy, slice and dice up the sounds of the '70s punk scene, churn them up, and then almost arrogantly gob them out. The Sex Pistols, the Clash, Siouxsie and the Banshees, the Ramones and the Dead Boys are the band's major touchstones, but that's just for starters.

Although purists insist punk ended in 1977, the Duel don't end there, going on to gobble up the styles of second generation groups and early hardcore bands as well, Killing Joke, Wire, and Vice Squad, among them. But what the Duel do best is attack their songs with the same gusto as the originators, and with a bit more musical proficiency to boot. Like her bandmates, frontwoman Tara Rez's vocals are pulled in as many directions as the music itself. She can sound as elegant as Pauline Murray one minute, as exhilarating as Fay Fife the next, shriek like a banshee, or more accurately Poly Styrene, or sound as aggressive as Siouxsie Sioux herself. The songs are as sharp as anything from back in the day, the lyrics withering, with many revolving around political and societal concerns. Punk never quite succeeded in its goal of trashing the modern world and building anew, isn't it about time, then, that someone demanded Let's Finish What We Started?