Drawing from the band's first two albums as well as a variety of singles and other releases,
Bloodied But Unbowed is the perfect way to take the plunge into
D.O.A.'s world, where punk is forever a guiding light for blunt and brusque trashings of the status quo. Whether it was the band's Canadian roots that enabled them to create such a cutting rip into early-'80s America from an outside perspective, or just simply a natural anger coming forth, the sentiments of "Fucked Up Ronnie" and "World War 3" burn loud and hot. Elsewhere the quartet tackles slightly more mundane, if favored, punk targets -- poseurs ("Rich Bitch"), societal control ("The Prisoner," "Smash the State"), idiots in general ("Watcha Gonna Do?," "Get Out of My Life"), and even landlords ("Slumlord," about the only tune even more attacking than
the Dead Kennedys' "Let's Lynch the Landlord"). Joey Keithley's surprisingly articulate singing and guitar work pretty much helped define hardcore as much as the work of
Minor Threat did, but the secret weapon of the group was unquestionably
Chuck Biscuits, who was both a decent-enough songwriter for the band, and a simply fantastic drummer. The band's self-production was rather well-accomplished for what they had to do -- there was enough of the bass coming through to keep things from simply being a trebly, spiky mess, at least more often than not. The one bit of outside help on boards came from legendary OC punk producer
Thom Wilson, whose work on "Fuck You" equals that of the job he did for bands like
the Adolescents. At points, the music is more like draggy metal that
Kiss wouldn't mind as much, and sometimes Keithley indulges in goofy Johnny Rotten vocalisms, but all in all this stuff kicks hard years after it was recorded. [The album was reissued in 2007.] ~ Ned Raggett