American Steel formed in the East Bay back in 1995, which is a great place to form if you're into being magically imbued with excellence. They pretty much dropped an EP, toured like psychos, and then bedded up with New Disorder to record their s/t in 1997 NOT 1998. I don't know why I keep seeing that all over the internewt. While I'd throw American Steel's entire initial run in the "what the fuck why" basket of underratedness, even with the critical and fan-based aplomb their 2007 comeback received, "the kids" still seem to throw the self-titled out with the bathwater the self-titled was soaking in for some reason. (I don't know if that was the proper cliche to even fux wit.) The consensus seems to be thus: American Steel really only got good on their Sophomore LP, Rogue's March.
This. Is false.
Unless you find a descriptor like "a mash up of Crimpshrine, Operation Ivy, and Grimple" really unappealing, I guess, which a lot of people might considering the same could roughly be applied to early Rancid (like, real early. 1993 Rancid). Also, the ska element - while diminutive - is a thing that exists here in the form of a few scattered tracks with upstrokes. Look, I'm as over ska as everyone who isn't a hopeless manchild born in 1987, performing at small venues alongside washed up hair- and nu- metal bands and refusing to accept the cruel reality that the 2000's dawned on, but this shit is great. Y'know how you presumably don't think Operation Ivy sounds super dated despite birthing a wave of ska literally no one will ever like again? This is in the same ballpark of miraculously unembarrassing ska-adjacent music.
To reiterate, this sounds very unlike the rest of the band's catalog (which you're most likely more familiar with). The levels of grit are pushed way da fuk ^, the speed is high, and the tempo changes are powerviolence spontaneous (sorta). That level of punk-ness claimed, the sheer mass of hooks here is astounding, and a huge hunk of the appeal is how the dirty, ugly rawness entwines with the lipchewing beauty. Kind of like Unfun, to use a current, grody pop-punk example: on one hand, the crunchy, gravelly guitar tone and the gruesome post-nasal nightmare vocals; on the other, cathartic leads and breakdowns with heartfelt lyrics that make you bunch up your chin and stare unflinchingly ahead, eyes watering so stoically, so chained to male socialization BUT STILL ALIVE IN THERE SOMEWHERE.
I seriously could go into describing every track on here I love this album so much, but to sum it up, there literally isn't a single throwaway or half-baked idea. This shit is awesome, just like how you'd use the word to describe the pyramids of Giza and Marcel Proust's body of work, and easily one of my favorite punk - or music, in general - albums of all. This is worth noting because my taste is outwardly objective reality.
TRACKS TO CHECK OUT: "Cheer Up", "Landmine Lullaby", "Latchkey Kid"
CONS: you need to do shameful record collector stuff to find a copy, probs
ENTER EXODUS. They had a few good songs, I think. But enough unprecedented heights of hilarity. Rogue's March is the band's second LP, released on Lookout! back in '99 while guitar/voice guy Ryan did the whole "leukemia" thing with his chest guts and shit. It's often that one might apply the "pack a day" descriptor to pretty much any band in whatever constitutes the whole "beardcore" scene, but Ryan LIVED IT. That's not the most sensitive appraisal.
Anyway, around this point you can shove off most of the previous comparatives, as it's a pretty huge leap stylistically. Toning down a lot of the 'turned to 11' ultra-grit, frantic pace and dual-Strep throat vocal stylings, this is when American Steel started reinventing the SoCal sound, synthesizing The Clash, Leatherface, and early Samiam through a folky Americana lens years before Brian Fallon began firehose-puking Velveeta cheese all over creation. Considering the pure 'East Bay decoction' of the last LP, this really only finds clear precedent in one track - "Beatdown" (which I probably should've mentioned in the last assessment) - with it's less immediate hooks, deeper melodicism, and longer running time. Otherwise, this is the kind of magical between-albums evolution that signifies that a band contains actual musicians with vision and stuff.
I'm gonna go ahead and do the lazy hyperbole thing again: this album is pretty much as flawless as the first, but with stronger individual identities in each of the tracks. If you've heard scattered tracks before and aren't totally sold, give "The Parting Glass" a listen. Those closing harmonies in the third chorus cycle are the harmonies dreams are made of.
TRACKS TO CHECK OUT: "Every New Morning", "Got A Backbeat", "Parting Glass"
CONS: that album art. I mean, if you're not a critical asshole it's nice and moody and probably thematically relevant somehow, but man, look at the size of that cigarette held by nothing. Look at that ambiguous grasp on anatomical proportions.
After this, the band released one more LP I've never been too hot on, broke up sorta (if you can call dropping one member and renaming 'breaking up'), and reunited in 2007 to receive oral pleasures from everyone in the entire world. I'm not sure, though, I haven't heard any of that shit in a long while. Probably when Dear Friends And Gentle Hearts dropped in 2009. That was, as my friend put it, the moment American Steel "finally shit the bed". As for the above two, I couldn't really give a higher recommendation. These are total fucking classics, up there in the pantheon of decreasingly modern melodic/pop punk greats like Discount, The Broadways, Leatherface, and Dillinger 4. Just incredibly great, prescient stuff.
Also, look how cool I am with my identity affirming objects:
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