H20 – Don’t Forget Your Roots

For the most part, cover albums are as unnecessary as live releases. They too often serve as a filler release for a band. Occasionally though, you stumble across an album of cover songs that does more than simply sound like a bad karaoke recording. The best of these give listeners deeper insight into a band.

Despite being a band since 1995, this particular covers album is only H20’s second release in the past decade. Nevertheless – longtime fans of the band have been eagerly anticipating the release; but the real question remains, does Don’t Forget Your Roots have any appeal to young punk fans who may not be familiar with the band? Well, not only does the album provide an inside look into the roots of the beloved band from the 90s Epitaph scene, it stands alone as a legitimate album release.

Vocalist Toby Morse is a well known PMA supporter. It makes sense that he would choose to begin the album with seminal DC hardcore band Bad Brains and the song that introduced many to the idea of living with a Positive Mental Attitude. While it is nearly impossible to imitate the vocals of Bad Brains’ HR, the band still manage to stick closely to the original. They follow it up with an exciting 7 Secondscover of Satyagraha, which could easily be mistaken for an H20 original. For the most part, the bands that they chose to cover are obvious choices, but some of the songs are surprising. Both Train in Vainand Sick Boy (originally The Clash and Social Distortion respectively) push the band out of their comfort zone. They tone down the rockabilly flair of Sick Boy, but it is still present, which provides an interesting deviation for the hardcore punk band. It is nearly impossible not to sing and dance along when the song is playing and it was likely the most fun cover for the band to record.

Train in Vain is similar. It is a classic song from a legendary punk band that is fun to sing along with, even if it is far from the most obvious cover for a band like H20. After a few listens, the strangeness starts to wear off and the fun factor wins over. The most jarring cover is Scarred, which was originally done by Verbal Assault. The piano intro and slow, moody pace sound nothing like anything the band have ever recorded. It may not be as obvious of a punk rock karaoke choice as The Clash or Social D, but it is undeniably a great down tempo hardcore song. The choice to cover a song from Ian Mackaye’s post hardcore band Embrace instead of Minor Threat is a surprise, especially since Toby Morse is one of the most outspoken straight edge supporters left in the scene. But once again, the guys manage to make it their own.

Alongside the songs from punk legends (Ramones, Descendents) and hardcore superstars (Gorilla Biscuits, Madball), they also include covers of bands who could be considered their peers during their heyday in the 1990’s. Rancid’s Journey to the End of East Bay retains the solid bassline of the original and sounds great, while Someday I Suppose proves that Mighty Mighty Bosstones owed as much to hardcore as ska.

The wait for a new H20 album has been way too long, so a covers album consisting entirely of Taylor Swift songs probably would have been welcomed by longtime fans. Thankfully though, Don’t Forget Your Roots is a collection of great punk and hardcore songs filtered through the H20 sound, which makes a rare must have covers album. It is interesting to hear the songs that the band members love and chose to cover. Hopefully they enjoyed the project enough to get back into the studio soon.