Band : The Casualties
Album title : We Are All We Have
Label : Side One Dummy Records
Distributor : Music Shock – Suburban
Release date : 04/08/2009
Release : CD

This band was formed in 1990 in memory of the “golden era” of Street Punk, of bands such as The Exploited, Charged GBH, and Discharged…considered disappeared by 1985 by The Casualties’ founding members. And while the band is considered by many as being too young to really belong to the “Old School Punk” scene, they have nevertheless become one of the genre’s torchbearers!

Originally with two lead singers, Jorge Herrera is actually the only remaining original today! Guitarist Jake Kolitas joined in 1993, drummer Marc “Meggers” Eggers in 1995, and bassist Rick Lopez in 1999! Over the years, the band has donated songs to a brick-load of compilations, released 3 EPs and an equal amount of live albums, and We Are All We Have is the 8th studio album, the first since 2006’s Under Attack…which they toured extensively for all over the world! Trivialities: Starting their 4th album, 2001’s Die Hards, the band’s been signed to SideOneDummy; the band’s 6th album, 2005’s En La Linea Del Frente, was actually a Spanish version of 2004’s On The Front Line (Spanish being Herrera’s native language).

If it seems like I’m getting through the band’s history a bit swiftly…well yeah, I am, but the editor-in-chief tells me this is the only way for me to deliver at least 2 reviews per day (in order to catch up on our backlog) so, if you would like to know more about the band, look up their page at Wikipedia! Meanwhile, the opening line of the biography sent along with the promo of the album asks the questions whether with 7 studio albums and tours across the US, Europe, South America, Japan, and Mexico, the band members in The Casualties might not be getting the feeling of having done it all!
I’d say, they still have some nice stuff to contribute! And they don’t always stay strictly to their now known Hardcore Punk style either! With “In The Tombs”, they go for a shot of Ska/ Reggae in their Punk, and they extend that feel with the lengthy album closing “Rockers Reggae (Working Man’s Dub)” (apparently an extention of the first). “Looking Through Bloodshot Eyes” on the other hand, is quite heavy, but still melodic! Melody being the key word in all of The Casualties’ songs, by the way! With Herrera’s voice being lived-through and hoarse, he gets plenty of backings which are usually rather harmonic (less so during the just mentioned “LTBE”).

Over the years, The Casualties have gotten themselves a reputation of being a very good live band, and with songs like this, wich are proof of good songwriter-ship if anything…how can they go wrong? If Old School Street Punk, Oi!, Hardcore Punk…is your thing, then you’ve probably beeen acquainted with this band for a long time already! If you’re still trying to find your way in that scene, I can strongly recommend you check out these guys…they truly are among the best in the genre!!!

98/100

Tony.