From 1994 to 2005, Epitaph Records produced the Punk-O-Rama compilations. Volume 5 was produced in 2000, around the time that
NOFX, Pennywise and
Millencolin were enjoying some mainstream fame, as part of the whole skateboarding fad. I actually have no idea what caused me to purchase this CD! But let's dust it off and if there's any gold in there...
Due to the era of this CD, the most common style is skate-punk, but there's also a fair bit of cock-rock, the occasional old-school punk song (such as from "Poison" by
Rancid), metal, hardcore and some other rock sub-genres.
Special mention goes to
The Union- the pace and precision of "The Game" is incredible, especially the drumming. It's like they were only allocated two and a half minutes when they'd written a 5 minute long song, so they just played it at an insane tempo to squeeze it in!
Guttermouth,
The Hives and
Dwarves keep things immature; the latter with a cock-rock song dripping in innuendo and climaxing in a sex scene (actually, I'm not sure if it's tongue-in-cheek or not...)
The songs are taken from albums of wildly varying production values. Therefore the recording quality is a mixed bag, varying from rough (really, really rough!) to big and meaty.
For me, there's a bunch of songs in the middle section that aren't my cuppa tea. Having said that, I'm pleasantly surprised at the number of song on this album I enjoy.
Favourite songs
Pump Up the Valuum (NOFX), Problematic (All), No Cigar (Millencolin), Secure Horizons (Guttermouth), Better Be Women (Dwarves), Guilty by Association (Madball), Lookin' Out For #1 (Death By Stereo), 1.80 Down (Bombshell Rocks), Good Rats (Dropkick Murphys), Badge of Pride (Pennywise), Gone (Pulley), The Game (Union 13), Stranded in the Jungle (Voodoo Glow Skulls), Metric System in Time (The Hives), Automatic Teller (New Bomb Turks), Riot Riot Upstart (Agnostic Front)
Would I buy it again?
Hmm... really, it's just a "sampler" of the punk bands at the time. These days it is mostly redundant, since Amazon / iTunes / etc means that sampling almost any band on the planet is merely a click away. But that's an extensive list of "favourite songs" above, so I am glad to own it.
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