The Casualties – On the Front Line (Side One Dummy)
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No one’s ever going to give The Casualties any awards for originality—if you’re familiar with G.B.H. or The Exploited or fuck, any hardcore outfit from the last 20 years, you’ve heard The Casualties’ entire catalog—but the four-piece knows how to deliver crowd-pleasing, heavy caliber punk. On The Front Line,their latest for Side one dummy, finds them in a lather over the usual issues—military horrors, class and culture struggle and the general population’s refusal to give them the time of day—but don’t think for a second that this is candy-assed me-me-me emo. Frontman Jorge still sounds like he’s been chasing lighter fluid cocktails with a shot of toxic sludge, and the band charges through the thirteen tracks with a hellbent fury that doesn’t sacrifice listenability in favor of fire. The damn-the-torpedoes drive takes a breather for just one song, the pogo-flavored “Punk Rock Tragedy,” but after that, it’s strictly wild in the streets time. Again, there’s no new ground being brokenhere, but this is one of those situations where consistency is a virtue.

–Paul Gaita
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