Billy Talent

Named in honor of the fictional guitarist in the Michael Turner novel ‘Hard Core Logo’ (later made into a Quentin Tarantino-endorsed film) which follows the cross-Canadian reunion of a legendary Vancouver punk band, Billy Talent is far more rooted in traditional punk than most of the bands labeled “punk” these days (Good Charlotte, Something Corporate, blink-182).

This album belongs among 2003 releases like Strike Anywhere’s “Exit English,” the Blood Brothers’ “Burn Piano Island, Burn,” The Mars Volta “De-Loused in the Comatorium,” and Modey Lemon’s “Thunder + Lightning” (though Billy Talent is less polemical than Strike Anywhere, less stylistically radical than the Blood Brothers or the Mars Volta, and not as consistently and thoroughly trashy as Modey Lemon).

Matt Parks (November 15, 2003)