Ladies and blokes I'd like to welcome you all to the fourth edition of "Kaiser Records: Written Edition" where I mainly review music of these dark modern times and the occasional review of a classic album re-released. On this edition I'll be reviewing the latest album from the Californian punk band supergroup "Off!" titled "Wasted Years" (not related to my least favorite "Iron Maiden" song of the same name). Looks like lightning has struck twice as this is another rare time (that most likely won't be rare in the near future) where I'll be reviewing the album as a whole instead of my typical "song-for-song" styled reviews. (Click "Read More" to read what I have to say about this album).
As I have said in the introduction found on the main page (or above this paragraph if you are reading the full review) Off is a supergroup punk band made up of: Keith Morris (from the band Black Flag), Dimitri Coats (from Burning Brides), Steven McDonald (from Redd Kross), and Mario Rubalcaba (from Rocket From The Crypt). The quality on this album has a very rough and dirty DIY (Do It Yourself) sound that sounds like it was recorded onto a cassette tape in an old garage. I actually really liked this sound as it really went well with the band's style and builds up a very nice "we don't give a fuck" atmosphere. In other words this album (and band for that matter) will not click with people who love to listen to artists that are in the top twenty singles chart (then again the same can be said about a lot of shit I listen to and review). This is also quite a short album despite the album having sixteen tracks the album only runs for about twenty minutes with each song only running for around ninety seconds with the longest song being just over two minutes long.
Instrumentally I was expecting it to be full of repetitive but fun chords that has some very frantic sounding drums. I was somewhat correct as there are some songs with fast, furious, repetitive but fun chords but they also threw in some nice solos and jams that sound like that they were inspired by "Black Sabbath" and "Dick Dale". Drums on this album are very fast and frantic and were also fun to listen to. Bass wasn't bad on this album but it was mostly drowned out by the drums and guitar. All the instruments playing at once work together very well and the punk sound will get you moshing in your own room and rocking out with your cock out (my fly was up sadly so I couldn't set Kahn free).
Vocally it sounds like a typical punk rock band that you would hear in the 1970's/1980's like "Dead Kennedys" and "Bad Brains" where it's a guy yelling at a microphone. I'm not saying that's a bad thing at all as it is quite the opposite of that and I found the vocals to be quite enjoyable. Lyrically the songs are very simple but straight to the point which works great most of the time but there are times where I did get a "get off my lawn you damned kids" vibe which can make the songs feel a bit too "annoying old man" which did annoy me a little. Believe it or not this is one of my most anticipated albums of the year. Was I disappointed by it? No, not at all. In the end I found this album to be pretty enjoyable but it is far off (no pun intended) from being album of the year. For fans of hardcore punk or old school punk then this is the album for you. A cult classic album.
Album: Wasted Years
Artist: OFF!
Genre: Hardcore Punk
Running Time: 23 Minutes (16 Tracks)
Label: Vice Records (ADA)
Label: Vice Records (ADA)
Distributor: Warner Music Australia (http://www.warnermusic.com.au/home)
Price: $17.99
Recommended: Yes
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