Search - Consolidated :: The End Of Meaning

Years of activism finally take their toll

Kirston L. Otis | Houston, TX | 05/28/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This album, and their final piece of work Free Music Or Stockpiled Death, follow the same instrumental approach and leave much of the heavy politics behind. To the casual listener it would seem like Consolidated have lost their edge, but there is something to the last two albums that isn't immediately obvious. There is a pain in the music that is conveying the frustration of over a decade of trying to change the world while raising a family at the same time. This is an album of blues for the members of Earth First!, ALF, PETA, Greenpeace, ELF, Planned Parenthood, and hundreds of other low-level groups throughout the world. Theirs is a constant struggle and the fruits of their labor pale in comparison to the corporations they're waging wars with.



Grab a pair of headphones and a comfortable chair then really sit down and take in the sounds of this album and their final work, which is still available from a few sites. There is a power in these songs that they could never have conveyed with their earlier albums over a fifteen years ago."