Splatters-Fear Of The Park

Atomic Stuff
2012

Forgive the late date at which this one is getting reviewed. The thing is "Fear Of The Park" was released W-A-Y back in late-March of 2012. Yeah, this ones a little past due and no, scout's honor (even if I was never in the Boy Scouts!), it has nothing to do with the scary clown face that adorns this album! My Coulrophobia aside I've just been way too busy to keep track of every promo that pops up in my virtual or physical mailbox! All that aside, here we have a 4-piece act whose band members have names like Alex Damned, Mr. Sprinkler and Paul Destroyer! That's the backing crew though as our lead singer/other guitarist (Alex Damned handles the lead guitars here) goes by Drow and yes, we do find ourselves with song titles like "Welcome To Zombieland" and "Why Do They Always Die In This Way?". Even before I slid this one into my car's CD player I would have guessed we would be looking at some sort of Gwar/Lordi/Green Jelly act. Color me surprised then when old-school punk can rattling out of the speakers! No, not Misfits style either which would have been my guess as well, but punk rock that is more in tune with the likes of Stiff Little Fingers, The Avengers, Sex Pistols, Dead Boys and Peter and the Test Tube Babies. Maybe it's not remarkable punk rock in any shape or fashion, but it's punk rock non-the-less. As it appealed to not only these ears, but my teenage son's ears as well (while he likes classic stuff like The Beatles he also likes a lot of Top 40 stuff as well) this 11-track album had more to offer then previously expected. Again, it might be fairly typical punk (if there really is such a thing?), but it has it's own charm  about it so why not?