The Exploited have been around forever and were even around in the dim and distant days of my youth. It could be said that Wattie and the boys came as the secondary shock wave resulting from the original spasm of cultural dissolution called PUNK, that occurred during the late seventies. And it was with their debut album 'Punk’s Not Dead' in 1981 that they began what has turned out to be a long and determined fight to have their say. 'Fuck The System' is their eighth album over more than twenty years and it’s great to hear that there's no sign of compromise. In fact they're proving that there's really no substitute for experience while at the same producing so much energy, you might think that this is a band full of kids.

Playing no-frills, old-skool street punk - these guys ain’t no pretenders - none of the Blink 182, The Offspring, Sum41 bullshit with the horrible fake plastic-punk that keeps endlessly spewing from the USA. There is nothing so inane to be found here, this is the real deal. Here you find social comments done to music. It’s music by the working class for the working class, songs that are dirty, simple and to the point and often alluding to scathing subjects. Songs that reflect everyday issues and mundane circumstance, things that echo the society we are living in and things that WE can shout about.

The short simple punching riffs, harsh and abrasive guitars, piercing solo guitar runs, angry snarling vocals, chaotic battering drums and powerful messages all keep the context and are divulged very directly. This album is played at pace - varying from manic to very quick - and only dropping to mid pace for the last track ‘Was It Me". There's a metal influence integrated into a number of the songs on this album - something that has developed as a definite progression in their sound over the last few albums. This isn’t at all detrimental and actually widens the scope and the appeal of the music while adding another dimension to an already formidable amount of aggression. There are parallels with Discharge who very effectively over the years integrated a strong metal influence into their music.