Virus Nine – Blastin’ Away! / 13 Songs/ 2003 A-F Records / http://www.virusnine.com / http://www.a-frecords.com / Reviewed 17 August 2003 / Released 10 June 2003

Years pass, bands get older, and I sit here typing this review much like I was back in 2000 when I reviewed Virus Nine’s first full-length, Bomb Threat ’77. In the meanwhile, the band has signed onto A-F records, the label set up by the guys from Anti Flag, and released a second album (What Are You Afraid Of?). Transcendent of any specific label, Virus Nine is every bit the spastic band I remember. Looking both forward and backward to make a disc that removes itself from the time stream, tracks like “Stay Proud! Stay True! Stay Punk” would seem perfect on an early eighties skin record, while “Bound for Glory” wouldn’t be too much of a stretch on any mid-70s Southern rock record. This ability to so flawlessly enjoin different genres of music was something slightly present on Bomb Threat ’77, but really has its glory in “Blastin’ Away”, en route in showing exactly how much the band has matured in the last few years. As with “Bomb Threat ‘77”, Virus Nine does use a cover song in a different way than it was intended.

The thread of cover track to album as a whole is an interesting discussion in itself. “Bomb Threat ‘77”. While “March of the Thugs” did modify “Ants Go Marching In”, the track was not highly connected to any other of the tracks on the disc. “Friends in Low Places”, the Garth Brooks cover slipped into the end of the disc, is more of a nod to the continual buzz of country influences on the discs than anything. “March of the Thugs” was a slightly more innovative song in that Virus Nine did construct another song out of the original, but finishing off “Blastin’ Away” off in this way really leaves open any future discs by Virus Nine into more of this type of experimentation.

Don’t get me wrong, this disc will still get any punk kid up and bouncing with its high-energy rendition of soon-to-be-hits “Lost in America” and “Red Blooded Mutiny”. The Rancid influences, the similarities to the Dropkick Murphies, and the frantic pace of the disc are still all there. Don’t think because they signed to a real label that they’ve had to change their general sound for acceptance. Any differences that I can discern on the disc are purely a result of having much better recording options, but this is the Virus Nine that I played the hell out of on my radio show, the Virus Nine that blasted out Bomb Threat ’77 right into my Hall of Fame recordings.

Rating : 8.3/10

Top Tracks : Chaotic Pace!, Stay Proud! Stay True! Stay Punk!