The Casualties

Chaos Sound

Written by: MAK on 07/02/2016 16:25:41

The Casualties are up there as one of the most recognisable punk names to have come out the last 25 or so years. Perhaps not as popular as your NOFX or Rancid, the street punks have still thrived strongly in the punk scene and the New York men have still managed to last long enough to make it to a milestone tenth full length, “Chaos Sound”.

Just from the album art, it tells you all you need to know about The Casualties; colourful liberty spikes and mohawks matched with studded leather jackets with DIY art. It is a look that is as intimidating as the music and attitude the New York punks produce. Even on “Chaos Sound” there is a track called “Visions Of Greed” and your mind automatically jumps to the idea that this is a protest song against capitalism before you even listen to the song.

“Chaos Sound” is an incredible way to describe the music created by The Casualties, it is a fun mixture of the aggressive hardcore punk and the rather joyful Oi! Lots of crunchy riffs, fast energy and Jorge Herrera’s trademark gritty vocals that sound like he chews gravel on a daily basis. All of this is matched with lots of backup shouts, “woahs” and “ois”. It is a formula that has worked for The Casualties for over two decades and they have no need to change their “true punx” style.

This doesn’t work for every band, but it works strongly with The Casualties, you just know what you are going to get every time and it never gets boring. The punk legends are still creating anthems that stand out strongly against many punk songs in recent years. This is mostly down to the hooking choruses, early on into the album the words “we’re running through the night” are imprinted into your brain by the end of the first chorus in “Running Through The Night”. “Brothers And Sisters” has that skate-punk vibe reminiscent of certain Pennywise tracks with all its “whoah” 's and another very simple chorus that you can sing along to with ease.

Tracks like “Work Our Lives Away” and “Halfway To hell” carry on the anthemic style choruses that would be great for crowd shouts during live shows. Then there are the up straight up aggressive tracks that will just cause relentless chaos in any audience. “Bomb Blast”, “Keep Your Distance” and “Murder Us All” are all brutal as the names suggest. High tempo beats linger in the background and those dominant gravelly vocals stand out, but it’s the heavily distorted and extremely gritty riffs that really captivate and make you want to lose your shit. The aggressive intensity of “Murder Us All” just takes me back to when I discovered “Tomorrow Belongs To Us” ten years ago.

Once again it is just the same old from The Casualties, solid punk tracks and we expect nothing less. We’ve heard this album before, but it is still highly enjoyable and a great addition to everything the punk legends have produced. You can tell the rowdy New York men still enjoy what they do and aren’t churning out tracks for the sake of fulfilling record deal commitments.

7

Download: Running Through The Night, Murder Us All, Bomb Blast
For The Fans Of: The Unseen, The Exploited, Discharge
Listen: facebook.com

Release date 22.01.2016
Season Of The Mist Records

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