I saw these Swedish blokes blow L7 off the stage about 5-6 years ago here in Fort Lauderdale not long after I moved from Hotlanta back to the southeast part of the sunny state of controversy (from Ellian, the Palm Beach county voting debacle to the Anthrax virus - I came back just in time). LA’s golden girls looked tired in comparison (not the best I had seen them and it may have been their last tour ever). These guys took the stage and practically the whole crowd forgot who they came to see. After a couple of songs they had won everyone over with their melodic brand of blistering brutish punk rawk.

But I never got around to hearing these guys on album until now. I guess either I was initially afraid they could not reproduce what they had onstage or that was the time I stopped buying music in the fanatical way I had before I ventured back to this hellhole of my origin. This disc (put out by NEBULA’s current label) is a compilation of songs from all of the band’s releases - “Total 13”, “Making Enemies Is Good” and “Stockholm Syndrome” (the latter of which apparently won them a Swedish Grammy). Strangely enough it feels like a well-rounded album in it’s own right. All the songs share similar production values. They also share a killer dual-guitar assault, mean yet melodious vocals, burly bass and drivin’ drums.

Although some prefer to get a great opening act rather than a mediocre one to road with, it’s hard for me to understand why the folks in SOCIAL DISTORTION or VELVET REVOLVER (I wonder if Duff still has the SD sticker on his black P?) would want to be annihilated nightly by this group during the course of their tours. I assume the only way to overcome this is to either play your best and/or wingding the tried and true “turn up the PA” trick. That always works and I doubt this band would ever have to resort to the latter measure when they become the headline act.

- Herring

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MP3 SOUND SCRAP: Highlights

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