Search - Annihilation Time :: Annihilation Time II

The best of both blacks

Alexander M. Wynn | Denver, CO | 07/05/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Wow. I mean...wow. Take the best of Black Flag and crossbreed it with classic rock/metal a la Black Sabbath, Blue Cheer, Deep Purple and the like. Or Fu Manchu and "Eye For an Eye"-era C.O.C. having a chud baby? Whichever, this is definitely an "I wish I'd thought of that" album. These guys make the aforementioned hybrids sound completely seamless, kind of like dipping your fries in a chocolate frosty at Wendy's...no one knows why they go well together; they just do. Uh, anyway, I have no qualms with saying this is one of the best punk albums to come out in recent memory, right up there with The Observers' "So What's Left Now?" (which, if you don't have, you need to get immdediately...I think they've got it on this site) and Tear It Up's "Nothing to Nothing". Raw sound, heaps of attitude, and in-your-face riffs all over the place, this is your soundtrack to a night of skating, pounding cheap brew and watching Thrashin', Fast Times at Ridgemont High and Dazed & Confused. The music sounds like the album cover. Remember that friend you had growing up? You'd go sleep over at his house and you guys would get to watch gore and skin flicks on Cinemax because his parents were divorced and his dad didn't care what he did anymore, and he smoked cigarettes and beat up kids for their lunch money, and there were rumors that he went to jail when he was 12 and all that stuff? Well, when he grew up, he started a band, and it's called Annihilation Time."