Review Summary: 117 songs in less than 90 minutes? That's about as punk as you can get.
Don’t worry, I won’t do a track-by-track.
Picture walking into a record store one day. You browse through various CD’s, and you come across Complete Discocrappy by Charles Bronson. The CD is priced at $16, a little expensive for a CD, don’t you think? After looking at the back cover of the CD, you realize that the album has 117 tracks. You jump for joy, thinking this is a bargain that no one can refuse (even though it may be quite a bargain). The record store is a little ways away from your house, so you decide to put on the CD while you drive home. You get home about 20 minutes later, and you realize that you have already blown through the first 25 tracks. You say to yourself, “Oh, that’s why it was only $16.”
Charles Bronson played an intense brand of powerviolence, racing through most of their songs in under a minute. Their music features breakneck-speed drumming, blazing guitar chords, and the signature nasally yelling/screaming of Mark McCoy. Their music managed to make punk more stripped-down and raw than it already was.
This is one of the rawest, fastest, most aggressive punk albums ever. The band, named after the famous actor of the same name, takes influence from powerviolence pioneers Infest, playing a combination of hardcore punk, thrashcore, and grindcore. The songs contain odd timing breakdowns, frequent changes in tempo, and plenty of dissonance. Charles Bronson are known for using samples of old television shows and movies between songs, often as commentary or satire. The lyrics on the album that one can make out deal with social issues, political topics, and the music scene. The album contains a countless number of great hardcore songs, and the intensity of these songs will knock your socks off every time. However, the album does have some filler tracks, and can drag on a little bit. But one has to consider that this is a compilation of their full discography, and is not necessarily meant to be listened to as a full, cohesive album. There really aren’t standout tracks, but some songs jump out at you more than others (but I won’t name all of them for convenience’s sake).
If you like intense, fast, in-your-face hardcore, give Charles Bronson a listen. You will not be disappointed.
Overall Rating: 4/5
