Only Crime – Virulence

With members from Good Riddance, Bane, Converge, Black Flag, ALL/Descendents, Hagfish and Gwar, Only Crime are a punk rock super group of the punk rock scene;but with so many musicians from varied acts forming the group, the sound behind it could also be misleading. Will it be the straight forward punk rock of the Black Flag punk rock scene, a crazy trip based on hardcore legends Convergesound or will it be composed of the theatrical antics of Gwar? But when it comes down to it, Only Crime‘s sophomore album, Virulence, decided to follow where they left with To The Nines and crawl out of the East Bay gutters to bring fast, sweaty, melodic hardcore anthems together as one.

Virulence spits out solid punk anthems, molding the angst and agitation of the youth with a slight more melodic undertone, merging together acts like Black Flag and Good Riddance. Drummer Bill Stevenson constantly keeps the tempo up and momentum flowing while Aaron Dalbec and Zach Blair fill the background with loud and fast guitar riffs. Russ Rankin’s vocals are crisp and clear, effortlessly switching from more melodic outputs needed for the more love-oriented tracks like Shotgun and Just Us before breaking out and firing angst ridden tracks with a dry, leathery bark that only he can produce. There’s A Moment sees him almost giving a spoken word delivery as he is direct and choppy at the start.

While Virulence is a complete punk rock album, there are times when Only Crime seem to be facing an identity crisis, as they struggle between pop-rock perfection and punk rock angst and energy. The album still flows and Rankin’s vocals are constantly spot on, there’s a few spots of experimentation that sound really good (like the breakdown at the end of Framed Then Failed with the hollow vocal delivery), but at times you find yourself asking for either more hardcore elements of more melodic elements, looking for a better mix between the two. Something that they’ll hopefully fix on their third album.

Still, the punk rock super group have delivered us a solid follow up to To The Nines, an album that will eventually wear thin, but worth a few full spins before that.