Various

Punk-O-Rama 7 (2002)

Brandon Sideleau

Well……what can I say? Epitaph has over the past 10 years become the largest and most recognizable punk label in the world, with Fat Wreck Chords not far behind. And, since 1994, they have released a punk o rama compilation every year (with the exception of '95). Each of these comps featured various artists from the label's roster and "usually" included a fair amount of unreleased material. For the most part the compilations were good, and occasionally great- but times are changing and more poppy music has found it's way to Epitaph.
Now, in 2002, we have Punk O Rama 7- which features only 3 unreleased or new tracks and focuses mainly on Epitaphs main money makers and pop punkers- Guttermouth, Pulley, NOFX, The Bouncing Souls, Etc. And, although there are some great non pop punk tracks- like Pennywise's purpolsively excellent "The World" and Bad Religion's great experimental "The Defense"- these songs have been availible for a year now and we've all either heard them or have the album so it's kind of pointless to include them here!
There are 3 unreleased songs from Guttermouth, Hot Water Music, and Death By Stereo. First I heard the Guttermouth track and I wasn't expecting much and I didn't get much, just some very unfunny immature humor song about a girlfriend titled "My Girlfriend", then I was on to Hot Water Music, whos' new track "Wayfarer" was included on the disc. This song actually suprised me- I've seen Hot Water Music live and I loved them, but their records never seemed to hook me, but this song is great…. it even has some Misfits-like "whoas". The new Death By Stereo track, as you would expect, rules- the new album is gonna be great! But, as of there, I was done- nothing new to listen to! I mean, what happened to the 2 unreleased B Sides by Bad Religion from "Process of Belief"? Where are the 3 unreleased songs from Pennywise's "Land Of The Free" Sessions? What about an unheard Nerve Agents track? Or something new from Lars and The Bastards? Nope- none of those things came true. Each of those bands stated that their B- Sides would be on "compilations" but that has yet to be proven true.
In the end- this is really a 3 song album, with only 2 great songs- unless of course you are COMPLETELY foreign to Epitaph, but most likely if you buy the comp you know the bands. So, I'll give it a five- not bad music, some great songs- just not enough new material to give it a thumbs up!