### Bones Brigade: I hate myself when I'm not skateboarding

#### 20/03/12 || Habakuk

Fuck Winter. I mean it’s not even all that bad when it’s there. When taking a step back, however… I just went out without a fucken jacket the first time in months, and it’s in that kind of situation where I’m like, why the fuck did I put up with this shit in the last months? Of course, there are other people out there who eat, shit and die metal and love the bleak grvmness of winter. Well, eat shit and die. Winter kinda sucks. And I’m glad I can herald the comeback of life into the world with a disc like this Bones Brigade album in my car stereo: “I hate myself when I’m not skateboarding” – Well, I do neither of both, but I certainly dig the music here.

Songwise, one might be led to think that this came out alongside some D.R.I. record back in the late eighties, just with the great addition of a classy production job that really brings the nasty rumbling bass playing into focus. Clearly these guys are more on the punk side of things, which reflects in the fact that the bass is the true driver of the music on the album. It might as well be the reason why they seem to have been left completely untouched from the whole new wave of thrash phenomenon. The closeness to metal in Bones Brigade’s sound is probably due to a similar affinity to stuff like Gang Green that can also be found in many of the good old crossover thrash bands. You know, who basically took punk, added palm-muted riffing and solos and replaced the political themes with … err, skateboarding, beer, and all that.

Like a real champ album, the disc clocks in at 18 minutes and stockpiles 13 nicely crafted collections of gang shout choruses, catchy riff-driven grooves, high speed punk meets thrash guitar, d-beats and a great, screaming vocal delivery. Naturally, these are super-short outbursts, and they make up what they lose in playing time through sheer intensity.

At a point in time where Municipal Waste and all that drivel have completely lost all of their appeal again, it’s nice to be reminded for once that the whole skate/fun/thrash/punk mix can actually be done in a genuine and good way – you know, where you don’t need to be reminded by constant drinking puns that the music is about having fun. Kind of a shame, but it might just be a blessing that this band has remained completely under the radar of rampant metal labels. Summer can come. ALL GO NO SLOW!

- Information
- Released: 2003
- Label: Cargo Records
- Website: Bones Brigade MySpace
- Band
- Andrew: vocals
- Blake: guitars
- Phill: bass
- Mullet: drums

- Tracklist
- 01. Thrashin’ USA
- 02. All go no slow
- 03. Real ultimate power
- 04. No one gets out alive
- 05. Adult crash
- 06. Each waking hour
- 07. I’m not alright
- 08. Hands off
- 09. Evil dead
- 10. Skate or die
- 11. King of the pit
- 12. See right through
- 13. No reason