Everybody Loves Antiseen

Because everyone needs to love North Carolina's Antiseen as much as the band itself loves pro wrestling, TKO Records has put together "a loving tribute to the boys from Brutalsville" on the appropriately titled, Everybody Loves Antiseen. But just because you love a band doesn't mean you need to cover their songs. With an assortment of 50-plus bands turning out for the long-running group's honorary soirée, it's admittedly a bit overkill. Tackling covers head-on (and with some songs unnecessarily appearing more than once), certain bands rip it fast, some heap in country flavoring, some folk songs up, and some just try and re-create that which is Antiseen with varying results. Despite best intentions, various bands just lack the certain charm which made the underground, Southern-fried, punk rock trash of Antiseen so fun in the first place. The production is also not great, but regardless, there are definitely some highlights in the punk-country-hardcore-folk-thrash mixed bag of bands here. Cuts from acts like Hank Williams III, Brody's Militia, Texas Terri Bomb, Hammerlock, the Bulemics, Cianide, and Sweet G.A. Brown all add a little spice to the project, which isn't completely horrible if you're already an Antiseen fan. But nothing here is essential -- some songs are just downright grating -- and assuming at least part of the project's goal was to turn new fans onto the band, it's probably better just to stick with one of Antiseen's own records. In this case, there's nothing quite like the original. ~ Corey Apar