D.O.A.

Previously released in 1984 and finally realised on CD, Bloodied But Unbowed compiles D.O.A.'s first two full-length albums, Something Better Change and Hardcore '81 respectively. Sounds great, doesn't it? But it breeds a conundrum: featuring killer tracks that defined the punk rock sub-genre of hardcore such as "The Prisoner," "Fucked Up Ronnie" and "Woke Up Screaming," (which essentially makes it an unwitting best of) and at 19 tracks, is more D.O.A. than most can handle anyway, it rocks. Yet it's still just a repackaging of well-documented and easily attainable material, making the ratio of desire-to-what's the point quite exasperating. No new material feels like a mild con to anyone other than a completist but most of these tunes are so fucking cool and on one easy disc, it argues for usefulness. Not to mention the potential it holds as introduction for many otherwise oblivious newbies to realise life outside of (and arguably inspiration to) the likes of Black Flag and Minor Threat. Trouble is, the majority of people that will probably have the gumption to pick up Bloodied But Unbowed presumably already own this business and are pretty much shelling out hard-earned dollars for some liner notes and remixed/remastered versions of songs that had limited production values to begin with. Equate caveat thusly.