For a punk band that has been around the '70s one would think that song writing and a decent recording would be a priority. Well, for The Destroyed on their new disc "Russian Roulette" the priority must have fallen to the way side. From the very first track "Dangerous Bomb" the listener is hit with dull vocals and seemingly meaningless drumming. The entire track is full of boring blast beats and vocals that I just wanted to stop. The lyrics are so repetitive and boring the listener is pulled away from the track.

The repetitive drumming and dull vocals are brought down even more by the awful recording of the album. For a band that has been around for over three decades you would expect that they have the ability to record a good sounding album even if the music isn't the greatest. The terrible quality of the album and the repetitiveness of the music throughout the album made me want to hit the stop button numerous times and just let it go. Without the pauses of silence in between songs you sometimes would not even know when the songs would end and a new song would begin. Even if the music is not as bad as I am making it seem the recording of the album definitely makes the entire album hard to listen to.

On a positive note. The Destroyed seem to be trying to breathe some life into the old school punk scene. For a band that at one time was called The Sex Pistols of the United States this album drags the band into being mediocre at best but keeps the feeling of old school punk.

The traditional punk scene has been dead for many years in my opinion. Gone are the glory days of mohawks and studded leather jackets and to see a punk band from the early years of the genre release an album always gets me excited but this album misses the mark. For me Punk means high energy and this album definitely misses out on what could have been a great revatilization of a band that at one time was one of punk's biggest assets.