Revenge (Black Friday/Record Store Day Exclusive)

By the time that Revenge was released in 1986, T.S.O.L. was barely hanging on to the last strands of its punk rock past. Led by singer/guitarist Joe Wood, the band's sound began to resemble the morbid cock rock of groups such as Alice Cooper and Danzig much more than the sarcastic resistance rock of California counterparts such as the Circle Jerks and the Dead Kennedys. While lead guitarist Ron Emory and bassist Mike Roche did their best to maintain their mosh-pit sensibilities on manic rockers such as "No Time," "Madhouse," and "Change Today," at this point in their career T.S.O.L. was much more likely to produce a song such as "Memories," which is an introspective look at teenage love lost. An acoustic-oriented ode to "Revenge," as well as a tribute to death itself called "Colors (Take Me Away)" continued the trend toward rock simplicity. While the album does end with paranoia spreading in every direction by way of a song titled "Everybody's a Cop," Revenge is really not much more than a record aimed to appease the juvenile mind. ~ Robert Gabriel