Propagandhi hate the concept of ‘the scene’. After being co-founded by singer/guitarist Chris Hannah and drummer Jord Samolesky when the pair have been high-school teenagers, they rapidly grew sick of the punk rock confines round them and sought to unfold their wings. That refusal to evolve has resulted in a peerless, near-40-year profession, their back-catalogue brimming with hardcore/heavy steel opuses and their lyrics unafraid of something – even pissing off their very own viewers. Following the discharge of At Peace, their first album in eight years, right here’s each entry within the Canadians’ discography ranked in reverse-order of excellence.
8) How To Clear The whole lot (1993)
Propagandhi are at their greatest when mixing punk’s lack of fuck-giving with steel’s drive and technicality. On their debut album, launched by NOFX bassist Fats Mike’s Fats Wreck Chords, they have been years away from nailing that steadiness. Chris Hannah has lambasted How To Clear The whole lot as “a goofy, skippy, cartoonish, laughable, Blink-182-ish sort of file”, and though its skate punk simplicity was a far cry from the band’s latter-day output, the lyrics confirmed sparks of their later wit and antagonism. “We stand for one thing greater than a light sticker on a skateboard,” Hannah howled on Anti-Manifesto. Certainly they do.
7) Much less Speak, Extra Rock (1996)
After the success of How To Clear The whole lot, Propagandhi’s exhibits have been populated with the kind of jocks and meatheads they freely hated. So, for album two, the band doubled down on their political messaging, slapping the phrases “animal-friendly / gay-positive / anti-fascist / pro-feminist” onto the duvet. The title monitor was an outright parody of head-in-the-sand rock’n’roll, with Hannah admitting atop hop-along drum beats, “We wrote this tune ’trigger it’s fucking boring.” As incorrect because it feels to rank an album this principled this low, Much less Speak… was Propagandhi’s final correct punk effort, and the fabric afterwards was what actually signposted them as a singular band.
6) Victory Lap (2017)
With 2012’s Failed States, Propagandhi made essentially the most steel album of their profession, and its follow-up represented each a step ahead and a backwards look. The likes of the title monitor and Decrease Order continued the exact but primal stampede of current works, whereas Failed Imagineer hearkened again to the band’s punk rock roots. Due to this, Victory Lap wasn’t as musically congruent as its predecessor, however Hannah’s lyricism stayed on level, narrating private experiences whereas additionally eager to be a conduit for Black and Indigenous views. Even with a proto-fascist, Trump-ian America south of the border, Propagandhi weren’t scared to be heard.
5) At the moment’s Empires, Tomorrow’s Ashes (2001)
In 1997, bassist Todd Kowalski joined the band. Described by Chris Hannah as somebody who “pushes us to make songs that may in any other case be pretty normal” and sometimes sighted in Nervosa and Demise hoodies, he inspired Propagandhi to pursue their avant-garde and steel influences. The early results of that was At the moment’s Empires…. Album three contained enduring fan-favourites resembling Again To The Motor League and took no prisoners with the booming chords and screaming vocals of Fuck The Border. Rightfully revered as a traditional, the one factor preserving it mid-table is the truth that the band continued to enhance because the years rolled by.
4) Supporting Caste (2009)
Propagandhi’s first album as a four-piece stays their most intricate. Joined by now-former guitarist David “The Beaver” Guillas, they loaded Supporting Caste with riffs and lead strains, making such standouts as Incalculable Results and Tertium Non Datur capable of rival any thrash steel monitor when it comes to bile and power. The songs additionally felt extra private than they’d in a while, bearing on the band’s veganism with Potemkin Metropolis Limits and utilizing a love for hockey to savage nationalism on Pricey Coach’s Nook. Extra Rush than D.O.A., this was one other evolutionary assertion from certainly one of punk’s most stressed bands.
3) At Peace (2025)
Propagandhi ended an eight-year dry spell with a switched-on manifesto for 2025. At Peace had its introspective moments, together with a conflicted title monitor and the lamentation of ageing that was No Longer Younger, whereas preserving its different eye on present points and dissecting them with poetic perception. Benito’s Earlier Work highlighted the best way fascist dictatorships start and their inevitable, bloody ends, and Vampires Are Actual waded into pervasive incel tradition. Slower than previous releases, the album was laden with head-bobbing riffs from Hannah and Sulynn Hago, making for an ideal, anthemic steel album for the current day.
2) Failed States (2012)
Guillas’ final Propagandhi effort earlier than he stepped right down to turn into a trainer, Failed States noticed the band actually lock in as a four-piece, turning Supporting Caste’s wackier edges right into a full-throttle steel assault. From grooving opener Word To Self, this was (and stays) Propagandhi’s heaviest, darkest album, utilizing the emergence of social media and conspiracies across the Giant Hadron Collider to color a very dystopian portrait of the world. Chris Hannah was additionally at his angriest right here, snarling in the course of the title monitor, “29 years in human historical past: the overall length of time with out warfare. What the fuck am I appearing so shocked for?”
1) Potemkin Metropolis Limits (2005)
The whole lot that makes Propagandhi particular – the heaviness, poetic lyrics, technicality, aggression and perspective – was current and evenly distributed on Potemkin Metropolis Limits. The band’s fourth album was a business flop, however for connoisseurs it turned the measuring stick towards which all future releases have been judged. Surveilling the disarray of a post-9/11 North America, A Speculative Fiction imagined an Iraq Battle-esque battle between Canada and the USA, underscoring its narrative with a punk/steel frenzy. It was an apropos begin to 12 songs of sharp hooks, powerhouse riffing and political punch, with every little thing from the president to punk rock itself getting black eyes. Musically and conceptually, Potemkin… was what Propagandhi had spent the previous 19 years constructing as much as, and it stands up as we speak as a masterpiece of protest artwork.
