Violent Society- Times of Distraught (1997)

Years ago, Violent Society played in my hometown, back when this place put on some really great shows, and I remember absolutely loving them.  I can remember the show pretty clearly because they played with some other great bands that night and the mosh pit was freakin' awesome!  At 17/18 or so, this was the exact style of music that I would do my best to seek out and definitely to see live.  During one part of the night, during one of their songs, I was in the pit with a local guy named Jimmy, (I wonder what happened to that guy?), and I can see the look in his eye as he punched me in the nuts because I just finished planting a right knee on his; oh such good times.  Now in that situation, there was no animosity for that happening, I mean, shit happens.  Directly after the nut smashing incident some 1-armed dude was also in the pit and with beer in hand he was thrashing around with the rest of us.  Well, old 1-armed guy hit me with his stumpy arm and in one fell swoop I landed right on a broken glass bottle of brew; once again good times.  Jimmy helped me up and immediately we laid into the 1-armed guy, knocking him down onto the same broken glass; watching him try and push himself up, bloody stump and all, was freakin' hilarious.  (sounds violent, but really that was just part of the kind of fun stuff that happens at shows!)  That night the music was great, the bands were great, the beer was great; all was great!

Now, onto the review.  Times of Distraught is a 15 track highly energetic album infused with all things hardcore/street punk.  Each and every song will make you turn up the volume and will produce an energy that is matched by very few other albums.  I have a couple other Violent Society releases, and they are all pretty much cut from the same cloth.  Fast punk style guitar that plays along with the super upbeat punk tempo on drums that are behind the screaming hardcore style vocals!  The culmination of a quintessential punk sound.  This album is short, the tracks themselves are short so this listen goes by fast and when it's done, you'll want more.

Any fan of Punk Rock/Hardcore Punk will absolutely love this album, and really this can be considered a classic in the 90's hardcore punk genre.  Buy it, try and see if they are playing live anywhere around you and do what you can to hear these guys, you won't be disappointed!

Official score- 4.25/5