Talk about seeing the world in black and white. . . Now I don't really know
much about these guys except for those few radio "hits" we've heard from
their past work, but I'd be daring enough to say about this new
self-titled release they got a major gripe with someone. Not
coincidentally, maybe, they're turning up on a punk indie label here (their
own apparently), but this one looks mean. If this was an actual
person, you'd pass out from the stench just from standing next to 'em!
Rancid? You bet your ass! What was that tune they did before? "Ruby
Tuesday" or "Ruby Soho" or some crap like that? Well there ain't
anything even close to that yet, and I can't believe we've
already blown through four songs. But there's plenty of anger to go
around! Everything's pure skull & crossbones, just like the album
cover.
"Don Giovanni," "Disgruntled" and "It's Quite Alright" are all downright
menacing. A complete mistreatment of a valued instrument! "Let Me Go"
settles things down slightly overall and in between has a funky
psychedelic break. It reminds me of the latest thing The Almighty did. In
fact, there's a lot of similarities for anyone familiar with either of
'em! The song remains the same - only the ranting's changed?
Full of pure snot and aggression, there are twenty-two songs worth of skull
denting rage! Well
something like that anyway. But this album, self-titled and produced by one
Brett Gurewitz, does just what they must have intended; getting totally
away from the fluttering airwaves of commercialism from before. This ranks
right up there with the rest of the old generation of sewer rat, hard
core, punk blasters!
