VARIOUS ARTISTS:
No One Gets Out Alive: CD
Of the seventeen tracks here, only one, Crucial Change’s “Shutdown,” evoked any sort of positive response. The rest—courtesy of First Offense, Skin Disorder, Reason To Fight, Strong Island Boot Boys, and the embarrassingly monikered The Offenders (even the most cursory research should’ve told ‘em a well respected ‘80s hardcore band went by that name)—ranges from uninspired “streetpunk” to just plain terrible skinhead-macho-posturing-set-to-music. Ultimately, when I hear this kinda stuff, I’m hard pressed to decide what’s worse: sellout overground crap-band abominations like SUM41 and Bowling For Soup, or the hordes of woefully unimaginative bands professing to keep the faith. A conundrum, it is. –Jimmy Alvarado (www.unitedfrontrecords.com)