V/A - Street Attack - Vol. 5

 

This is the fifth instalment in the series and at 31 tracks you’re certainly getting value for money! This compilation is predominately punk rock orientated and is similar to US label compilations such as Epitaphs’ punk-o-rama collection and the music is very similar, as we shall soon see! There is some great HC on offer here though as well as some good speed punk Bad Religion style. Tracks 11-14 are the balls out HC shit. Vindicator belt out some crucial if not slightly generic NYHC with lyrics about unity and the brotherhood, gee never heard that before! With the singer who sounds similar to Lou Koller of SOIA. Sidetracked and Tubesuckers fare pretty better with some really kickass BRUTAL HC which for some reason reminds me of Shutdown. However the one band who really blew me away is definitely Rotten Bastards, the singer sounding like Lord Ezec of Skarhead, and that’s the closest reference point I can think of for this band, with maybe a little Blood for Blood and the Bruisers thrown for good measure. Well worth checking out. The first few tracks on the album also were quite decent in an old-school Bad Religion kind of way. Unfortunately it’s not all good and the album really starts to go downhill roughly halfway through the album, (track 15 to be precise (Fenriswolf)). To boring, generic NOFX style skate-punk and these bands as well as their US counterparts tend to sound the same as each other after a while and blend into one. The album tries to redeem itself towards the end with some Oi orientated punk in the vein of Form Fehler and old-school crossover style in the form of Die Kleinen Strolche. But by now you’re bored to death and wanting the damn thing to end! The main trouble with compilations is that the people who compile them are so concerned with trying to give you value for money, that the quality usually suffers as a result and the album ends up sounding like filler. It’s too much! The other problem with this compilation is that it isn’t as varied as the title would like to have you believe. Most of the focus is on modern-day average punk rock. A little more ska (ugh!) and HC would have been nice and made it more appealing. This has the makings of a great compilation, but ultimately falls way short. Shame.