Album Review: Off! – Wasted Years
2 min read
Calling your new album Wasted Years brings up images of missed chances, procrastination and making the wrong choices. However, that can’t really be said of this hardcore Punk super-group, which features members from bands such as Circle Jerks and Burning Brides. Lead singer Keith Morris is 58 and has led a full punk lifestyle, never deteriorating from his chosen subculture. Whether he’s saying that this may seem like wasted years to some or that he feels this himself is open to debate, but what is true is that he must have had a hell of a time making this record.
The album takes you back to oldskool Punk; short, sharp, and to the point. Heavy guitar power-chords lash out songs that break the two minute barrier only once throughout the entire album in a barrage of adolescence, anger and intensity. The album is a love letter to a genre – a look back at a generation that flavoured society and had a lasting effect on the music industry that has rarely been seen again.
The album kicks off with Void You Out, a rollicking fast-paced animalistic blast of sound that throws you right in at the deep end. Within seconds you can almost smell the stale sweat from a mosh-pit of your past. No Easy Escape sounds like Ramones mixed with Black Sabbath and Sonic Youth. You can hear the mix of heavy metal and punk throughout the record, with the smatterings of metal working well with the overall rebellious sound.
Death Trip on a Party Train sounds like exactly what the title suggests (if there ever was one of these in existence), and before it’s outstayed its welcome, you’ve already left at the next station. I won’t be a casualty is exhausting and leaves you out of breath but wanting more.
If anything the downside of the record is there is no time to actually sit back and appreciate it. Writing Punk songs is more craft than people give credit for; most people thing you just thrash out a few chords on a guitar and that’s it, and anyone that doubts this should give this a try.
This isn’t an album for subtleties and nuances; it’s an album for letting off steam, reliving your youth and having a good time. It might not speak to the masses of today but will definitely speak volumes to a generation.
