Oh, this one was painful…
Look, I’ll admit that I kinda liked Total Chaos in the late ’90s. I even saw them at an insane, dangerous show at the Cobalt Cafe in the San Fernando Valley in 1997. The truth is, their aping of The Exploited and GBH – two bands I’ve never really cared for – got really tiresome and I was just more into the Jesus Lizard thing anyway.
Fast forward 15 years and you get Battered and Smashed. Vocalist Rob Chaos is the only original member, and he’s moved the band into a bland street-punk direction. There are singalong choruses with lyrics about all the fashionable street punk subjects, like fighting, drinking, rejecting the status quo, yadda-yadda-yadda, but it’s really just not any good. Chaos sings with a bad English accent, even though he’s from Southern California, and the songs are just plain forgettable, though “Social Crimes” has an okay guitar riff. Not even a six-pack of Olde English could rectify this situation.
I need to wash my ears out with some real street Oi!, i.e., Straw Dogs, Blank Generation, London Diehards, T.H.U.G. and even Skrewdriver, after hearing this slab of poseur rubbish. Peacock punks who get their hair done in salons will flock like lemmings to this release, but those of us who are the real thing will know the difference.
