Once punk outfit Lubricunts bit the dust, bassist DD Verni decided not to waste any time and put out an advert looking for people to form a new band. The year was 1980, the new band was Overkill, and alongside Bobby “Blitz” Ellsworth, DD has been there ever since, holding down the bottom end. This is his second solo album, and here he has gone right back to his punk roots, giving us an album Joey would be proud of as this happily wears its Ramones influences on its cut offs. This is punk metal which is tongue in cheek and a load of fun throughout. While DD provided the vocals, guitar and bass, he asked Jason Bittner (Overkill) to provide the drums with the caveat there was to be no double kick drums as this was all about going back to roots, so he made sure there was no palm muting or anything from the guitars which would move it too much in the metal direction.

It is an album which has the listener smiling throughout. True, some of the songs may run into the other, but who cares? It is like stepping back into CBGB’s in the late Seventies, and their version of BTO’s “Takin’ Care of Business” is the cherry on the top as they stay true to the original while punking it out and making it more metal. I was a teenager in the Seventies, and lived through the punk scene the first time around, and it was always bands like this who combined melody with attitude which grabbed my attention, and who doesn’t love Ramones? This is not a serious album, it is someone going out and doing what he was doing when he first started playing in bands, but now with decades of experience behind him, and it is a blast throughout.

Rating: 7/10

Links:
https://www.facebook.com/ddverni
https://www.m-theoryaudio.com/