Things you can count on with a new TOTAL CHAOS album: (1) song about punks and cops; (2) song about political oppression; (3) song(s) about hooligans, massacres, riots, the system, the other system, Nazis, squatters, and freedom (from the system). Fifteen year old me was enamored with TOTAL CHAOS, (what better way to smash the state than through the overthrow of the rules of grammar? See “Punk No Die”). Thirty-two year old me? Ehhh.

You don’t last 20 years as a band playing street punk/hardcore unless you’re doing something right, and TOTAL CHAOS has never lacked for strong hooks or decent musical chops (we’ll keep that RANCID/CLASH inspired outlier Anthems From the Alleyway out of mind, it was all Suzy Homewrecker’s fault anyway). . To this day, I can quickly rattle off the lyrics to “Riot City” from Pledge of Defiance- ‘riot breaks out every day / from racism to people’s gain / bloody riot to fiery hells / riot’s a fact that never fails’, ‘riot city – L.A. / riot city – USA / riot city – UK / riot city – Africa / let’s riot let’s riot let’s riot today / against the police or CIA / stand up and don’t be quiet / it’s a total fucking riot / riot city – China / riot city – Russia / riot city – Israel / riot city – Germany’. The use of ‘riot’ here towers over said use of ‘riot’ by THE CASUALTIES in “Riot”, which essentially peaked at “Riots in our cities / fucking riots at your schools / riots in this country we fucking riot just for you / riot riot riot riot”.

As for the release at hand, Battered and Smashed basically picks up where 2008′s Avoid All Sides left off, blisteringly fast punk/hardcore with occasional solos and Rob Chaos’ hellishly shouted vocals. A little bit of melodic anthem blaring punk gets into the track listing as well, plus an unexpected reggae foray. Mr. Chaos has sounded better… I can’t tell if it’s the recording of if the guy is working off of shoe-string vocal chords, but the lead vocals are muddy and indistinguishable. True to form, you can find a song’s title most of the time in lyrics, and TOTAL CHAOS have no problem repeating certain lyrics over and over again in the chorus. That’s just what they do, and if you listen to Battered and Smashed enough times, suspending personal relevance, the songs become memorable, the lyrics functional, and the TOTAL CHAOS legacy breathes on for another day.

Stomp Records