Press release –
Has there ever been a more urgent time for a band whose rationale is based on social justice to release an album entitled Revolution? Canada’s Grievous Angels have been reading the tea leaves for several years, and with their new 10-song collection — officially out Feb. 27 — they state plainly that it is time for all people to rise up against the global forces that seek to rule through fear and oppression.
Of course, this is not new territory for the Grievous Angels. For the past four decades, the punk-folk-country collective led by singer/songwriter Charlie Angus has performed everywhere from picket lines to major festival stages, all while building a formidable body of work that ranks alongside those of peers such as Billy Bragg and The Mekons.
While it sounds clichéd to say, Revolution may be the Grievous Angels’ crowning achievement. Recorded live-off-the-floor over three days in August 2025 at Toronto’s Canterbury Music Studio with engineer Gretel Milla, it is, as Angus says, a record for the times—an act of defiance against the darkness of the gangster fascists, whose message is also conveyed in the cover image of a clenched fist holding a white rose, painted by Ron Hawkins of Lowest Of The Low.
Revolution marks a new chapter for Angus as the first Grievous Angels album to come following his 20-year career as a Canadian Member of Parliament. Having chosen not to run in the 2025 federal election, he now splits his time between the band and other projects aimed at maintaining Canadian sovereignty.
“We used to see ourselves as a mongrel party band celebrating Canada’s northern working class, but these are different times and this is a different band,” Angus says. “We are much more political, more driven, more intense. It is reflected in the live sound that hits the stage like a locomotive. From a personal perspective, I feel that I can totally focus on the music and the relationship with the audience without the baggage of also being an MP.”
That renewed energy is evident from the album’s outset on “In The Time Of Monsters”—a song that meets the moment head-on—as well as the first single, “If There Was A Revolution,” which Angus bluntly describes as “two minutes and 55 seconds of street fighting determination.” Of course, it wouldn’t be a Grievous Angels album without a few heart-wrenching ballads as well, and on “Our Lady Of The Crows,” Angus duets with old friend Andy Maize of Skydiggers on a song celebrating the spirituality of love and trust.
Elsewhere, a more biblical sense of reckoning permeates Revolution, whether in a rousing cover of Rev. Gary Davis’s “Samson and Delilah,” the Johnny Cash homage “Judgement Day,” or the hymn-like closing track “Song For Joan of Arc.” Angus admits that gospel music had a strong influence on his recent songwriting, and he praises Angels’ co-vocalist Alexandra Bell for her soaring contributions throughout the record.
Speaking more broadly about the album’s overall theme, Angus says, “Revolution is a gospel for the barricades. Hence the themes: Joan of Arc and Sophie Scholl the white rose martyr of the fascists; Easter morning in a land of burned out homes and military drones; a Palestinian child being hunted in the land of Jesus; a stripper Mary Magdalene in a mining town.”
Obviously, no one can predict what the world will be like a year from now, but one thing is certain: the Grievous Angels will be playing music for the people and sending the message that it is indeed they who have the power.
Track Listing:
01 In The Time Of Monsters
02 Sister Mary
03 If There Was A Revolution
04 Our Lady Of The Crows
05 Saturday Night In A Laundromat
06 Samson And Delilah
07 Lost In The Woods
08 Roll Away The Stone
09 Judgement Day
10 Song For Joan Of Arc
Visit Grievous Angels on Facebook on Bandcamp.
