Although this album was promoted as being a supergroup formed with the likes of Corey Taylor, Randy Blythe, Dave Grohl, Jello Biafra and a whole host of other people who have more money than you do, it listens more like a compilation album of a few different bands. Where this album is interesting though is that throughout the whole thing, even though each track has its own feel, there is still an overarching feeling of continuity. Most tracks feature Reed Mullin on drums and Mick Murphy on guitar, with Grohl often sneaking in to play bass. What this does is give the album something to tie it all together, even when each track has a different vocalist on it. So even when one track sounds like it could be a different band playing to the one before it, there are small details, the production value in particular, as well as the style of the riffs, that confirm that all of these tracks belong on the same album as each other.
Going through the album track-by-track in this review would be an exercise in time-wasting. But listening to all 20 tracks is quite a journey: you go through the ferocious wastelands of old-school punk music (which is the heartland of this album, the thing that brought all these musicians together) but there is also the slower, more traditionally heavy metal provinces, such as Crowned By The Light Of The Sun with Neil Fallon. As mentioned, this album does have things that pull it all together, but the vocal performances are what really make each track its own small masterpiece.
The thing ‘Greatest Hits Vol. 1’ (a truly hilarious title for a debut album) does, more so than any other album released in recent memory, is demonstrate how traditional, 1970’s style punk music is still relevant. By bringing together musicians who came from or grew up in proper punk scenes, musicians such as Taylor and Blythe and even Matt Skiba, Mullins, Murphy and producer John “Lou” Lousteau have created an album that even those who were born too late for the golden age of punk but enjoy these artist’s other bands, and old-school punks alike, can both enjoy.
ANDY LEDDINGTON