Jello Biafra: EX DEAD KENNEDY'S FRONTMAN TO RUN FOR US PRESIDENT - Former The Dead Kennedy's frontman Jello Biafra will attempt to go from the mosh pit to the White House, and hopes to bring alleged cop killer Mumia Abu-Jamal along with him. The San Francisco Bay area punk-rock hero will face off against consumer advocate Ralph Nader, pro-marijuana activist Stephen Gaskin, and others for the presidential nomination of the New York chapter of the liberal, environment-minded Green Party. He has named as his running mate Abu-Jamal, the death row inmate whose alleged wrongful conviction has been championed by Rage Against The Machine, Amnesty International, and others. Biafra, 41, and maybe best known for the seminal punk tunes "Holiday In Cambodia" and "California Uber Alles," cites the World Trade Organisation and support for a "maximum wage" and squatters' rights as issues important to him; Biafra accepted the challenge after being approached by the Green Party to run for the nomination, however this is not his first foray into politics. The outspoken artist and head of punk label Alternative Tentacles ran for mayor of San Francisco in 1979, garnering three percent of the vote on a platform that called for legalised panhandling and squatting and for all downtown businessmen to wear clown suits during business hours.

• Enactment of a maximum wage
• Payback through free healthcare, education and public transportation
• Withdrawal of the US from NAFTA and the World Trade Organization, ideally forcing their dissolution
• A moratorium (or at least mandatory labeling) of irradiated and genetically engineered "frankenfood"
• End the "War on Drugs", disband the DEA, and commute the prison sentences of all small time drug offenders to "time served"
• Abolish the military and CIA, and destroy all nuclear weapons
• Shift the United States Government to Parliamentary rule, with proportional representation, and a sixty day limit on election campaigns
• "None of the Above" option on all ballots, whereby a majority of dissatisfied voters can force a new election
• Allow taxpayers to choose exactly where the government directs their money
• Citizen election of police officers
• Legalize squatting in abandoned buildings
• Eradicate all SUV's!!!!!!!!

Descent are the next with In The System, a self financed 12 track CD available via Copro’s mail order. In the accompanying blurb, they admit that finding a name is a hard business and that Descent was influenced by the Fear Factory song of the same name, but for me it’s not a good move. Already there are preconceptions of how they may sound, and it’s kind of a dangerous thing to line yourself up in that way against a band such as FF. The music itself though owes as much to Machine Head as it does the cyber ones. The main problem, as with Lounge:Fly earlier lies in the vocals. They have the feel of Robb Flynn stamped all over them, but there’s just not the power yet. I don’t know if it’s being held back, but where you expect a full throated roar, and where it’s being attempted, it sounds a bit strangulated. The stand out track on here for me after first listen is immediately Severed Soul. Has a really nice effect drenched intro and then it’s got one of those classic riff structures. One that you know has been used a thousand times before. One that when you play guitar in the safety of your own home is a riff you’ll conjure up and think "yeah", before imagining you’re playing it in front of 50,000 people at some festival. It’s not original, but it’s just one of those that works. And why argue when it works. It’s an excellent song. One that had a signed name band come up with, people would probably cream themselves over.

Elsewhere the influences are fairly obvious, the likes of Machine Head, Fear Factory, Pantera. The riffs chug and tumble out, the ones that start at one end of the fretboard and gradually descend all the way such as on Isolate. The same note played, gives that rise and fall sound (yeah Dave go. Show that musical knowledge. Your expertise at music theory. Prove why you’re a complete authority on describing music!!!!) There’s the slow grindy chug. One problem for me, though it’s fair enough really, is that like Pantera, they sometimes choose to do no overdubbed rhythm guitar when a solo is played. And like Pantera, it leaves the music so thin when it happens. The rhythm section can be tight as a tight thing in tight place, but it just leaves so much missing from the music. Yearn To Burn has some nice stuff going on, breaking down to an acoustic bit, though Fuel The Rage Inside just sounds too MH with it’s "1998 ... " speech.

Unfortunately many of the riffs aren’t completely memorable, which when you’re playing in a field where the competition is as strong as this, means it’s hard to keep returning to it. If you do, then it fair does grow on you. Perseverance is the name of the game (though I don’t reckon it’ll catch on as much as football did!) In The System (the song) itself is decent enough though, as is the album, especially if you’re a fan of earlier MH.