With the release of her new album, The Last Steps of Man—Unkind, Ani  Kyd Wolf taps into the contemporary apocalyptic zeitgeist of our times.  In collaboration with her writing partner, Marc L’Esperance, Ani and  Marc have produced 14 songs bound to create a visceral, gut reaction. The lyrics are original and evocative, like the best poetry, and will surely resonate with listeners. By turns, the tone of the album is dark and ominous (“War” and “The Last Steps of Mankind”) and hyper and frenetic (“I am an Evangelist” and “Cyanide), which capture the feeling of angst as we pass a turning point in history.  

It is tempting to call the album a political album, for the album is an eloquent indictment of our times by treating such themes as war, gun violence, the current ecological holocaust, sham prosperity preachers,  narcissistic lying politicians (Trump?), the violence of America, etc. Yet  the album also includes an array of other songs, some of which might be  termed “love songs.” Yet, it is a powerful kick-in-the-stomach kind of love, such as “Cyanide” and “Broken Hero,” the latter speaking of the tragic circumstances of loving a partner who’s addicted. While it is difficult to categorize any song as occupying a single defining genre, the song “What If” possesses the elements of a love song that recall the resilience and survival of a love that endures throughout the years.  Other songs strike a different note, such as “Movie Monsters,” which evokes the pop cultural archetype of an axe-wielding killer that bespeaks a fear that is terrifying yet seductive. To add to the diversity of themes, the song “Sickness” testifies to the harrowing experience of addiction.  

The shade of Marilyn Manson appears in the album yet in a non-imitative way, for Ani’s powerful vocals and lyrics express the moral, as expressed in “Us Sinners,” and political concerns of our times just as  Manson expressed the nihilism of an earlier age., the music on the album contains a subversive edge and emotional nitro-glycerin that will appeal to those who need more than the sterile anodyne of 

commercial culture and the nauseating pablum of pop music. The music brings to the foreground Don Binns’s consummate bass-playing, which functions as the strong central vertebrae in each song, and Ani’s voice is a flexible instrument capable of hitting those raunchy grindin’ notes as well as reaching higher melodic regions of music characteristic of a classically trained voice. In “Us Sinners,” Ani belts out the bluesy song with her deep basso voice to the accompaniment of a classical hard rock guitar and wailing of a harmonica; in “America,” Ani sings balls out “elegiac” song about gun violence overrunning the country.  Along with the fluency and versatility of the musical composition of each song, Ani demonstrates her remarkable vocal range in “The  Flowers Are On Fire and “Put the Gun Down.”  

Interwoven throughout the heart-thumping beats and melodic structure  of the music are the instrumentals performed by other notable artists,  such as the virtuoso harmonica performance by Marc L’Esperance in  “Us Sinners,” the plaintive violins played by Marc L’Esperance in  “What If,” the jazzy trumpet section performed by Toby Dika in “I am  an Evangelist,” the drums played by Jesse Kyd that drive up the frantic  tempo in “Cyanide,” and the synth played by the inimitable Stephen  Hamm in “Put the Gun Down.”  

Adding their special magic to the album, Jello Biafra, as the  Evangelist, injects his unique and adrenaline-driven mania into “I am an  Evangelist by singing the background vocals, whereas Sandy Scofiel plays the hand drum and performs the background vocals in “Highway  of Tears” which is a soulful and haunting lamentation that drives home  the message of the song, and, appearing regularly throughout the album  as guitarist and vocalist, Marc L’Esperance lends his voice to sing the  always on-point background vocals in “The Last Steps of Mankind,”  “Wildcard,” “Sickness,” “I am an Evangelist,” and “Cyanide.” 

As the last song on the album, the powerhouse song “Highway of Tears”  might be said to be the signature song that laments the “Murdered and  Missing Indigenous Women” who have tragically vanished on the  infamous “Highway of Tears” in British Columbia, which is  encapsulated in the line repeated in the chorus: “Never to be seen again.”  

“The Last Steps of Man—Unkind” is an often musically nuanced album and, therefore, warrants careful attention to each one of its parts, but the rewards are great for the avid listener. All in all, “The Last Steps of Man —Unkind” is a timely album whose urgent message invites the listener to share in the roller-coaster ride of emotions inspired by our contemporary era and gives voice to what many of us may feel but have not expressed.  

Out Now!!!