RT-Zed "Honour The Barbarian" review

I'm guessing a fair few of you own or have heard the Punk Tribute To The Clash album which was released in the early 2000s as it has a few Alarm connections, Mike Peters contributes a couple of tracks, Chelsea's Gene October one and of course James Stevenson not surprisingly is on there too! Then there was RTZ Global featuring Steve Grantley who provided a storming version of the classic "Guns Of Brixton" which for many was one of the albums stand out moments. After the albums release the label responsible approached the duo commissioning them to deliver an album of punk standards which the band would choose themselves but unfortunately during recording the label went under and left the project in limbo....

RT-Zed (let's use that name as that's what they became and is the name on the sleeve for this release!) finished the album but then with no means of releasing it at the time it was shelved. 15 years later it has finally seen light of day and we get to appreciate what an amazing album it is!

Looking at the track listing nearly all the songs will be familiar to those with even a casual interest in punk pulling in tracks such as The Damned "New Rose", X-Ray Spex "Germfree Adolescents", Ramones "Blitzkrieg Bop", The Jam's "Pretty Green" and of course "Guns Of Brixton" from the Clash tribute. The only semi deep tracks are the Sex Pistols "I Wanna Be Me" which was the B-side to "Anarchy In The U.K." and "Safe As Houses" by Grantleys Stiff Little Fingers found originally on the "Go For It" album which was obviously before his time in the band. What is massively noticeable is that despite their familiarity these versions are in no way carbon copies of the originals and sound pleasingly fresh. It's great to instantly be able to sing along to every track whilst also discovering them for the first time.

The electronic nature, which isn't quite EBM but certain flirts with it, works well in adding something different to the source material and then of course you have Grantley's vocals which are always on point! The only track which made me initially question it's inclusion was the Siouxsie & The Banshees classic "Happy House" which starts with RT-Zed radically deconstructing it but just as you get into the groove and sparseness it begins to pick up speed and mirror the rest of the album.

This is one of those great releases where it has the ability of taking your expectations and knock them out of the park. It is destined to be one of your go to albums when you want to sing your heart out and have a great time doing it.....if only all cover albums were this good!