Best Punk Albums of 2008

Alternative Tentacles grabs the opening spot on the list with a remastered release of some legendary punk recordings.

Amebix picked up the influences of Crass and made them harder, spawning the sound of crust punk over the course of three EPs recorded from 1982 to 1984 on Spiderleg Records. These three EPs had very small pressings, becoming very rare before being repeatedly bootlegged on lower-quality releases over the years.

Now the three EPs have been remastered and released on this compilation. The historical status aside, it's really a raw, heavy powerful and dark piece of music.

When members of NOFX, Aggression, Ill Repute and the Bad Samaritans get together, invent Elvis-related stage names, and put out a punk rock Elvis tribute, you should get a record that is, at best, a joke. If this one was meant to be a joke, though, it failed in that regard.

The fact this record is so good is either a testament to the band's talent and innovative take on Elvis tunes, or a testament to a joke that was either taken too seriously or not seriously enough, with the result being a serious punk record instead of what could have been a comic flash-in-the-pan album.

While Devo's contributions to and influences on punk music are often overlooked, they truly cannot be discounted. And when a band comes along that's embracing and personifying those influences, as is the case with Japan's Polysics, you are immediately reminded of how much some of your favorite records owe to the guys who brought you "Whip It."

Despite the fact that much of the lyrics on We Ate the Machine are in Japanese, the melodies and hooks are so remarkably familiar and energetic that you can't help but get into them, whether or not you understand them.

Formed in San Francisco as a one-shot Misfits tribute, Plan 9 proved to be so popular for their uncanny resemblance to the Danzig-era Misfits that they evolved into a legitimate band carrying on the sound the Misfits embodied in their golden age.

For those of us who pine for a Danzig-fronted Misfits reunion, Plan 9 is the next best thing. Vocalist Aaron Fuller's voice sounds so much like Danzig's that ManMade Monster comes across as a previously unheard collection of Misfits material, albeit one recorded with better quality than the original Misfits releases. Fuller's untimely death this year brought the band to an early end, but like the band they pay tribute to, we still have some damn good records to remember them by.

He may not have a major movie soundtrack hit under his belt (yet), but former Dropkick Murphys frontman Mike McColgan has his current project, Street Dogs, hitting full stride on their third album, State of Grace, which sees the band playing Boston Irish street punk that is little less Irish and a little more Boston than the Murphys.

Following 2006's widely successful release, The Sufferer & The Witness, Chicago band Rise Against released Appeal To Reason, a record that proves the band is not content to rest on the laurels of the sound and following they've developed with their previous albums, but instead are forging forward, exploring new and innovative sounds and subject matter.

Appeal To Reason offers plenty of the gritty melodic hardcore that Rise Against is known for, as well as straightforward punk-influenced tunes, dark Black Flag-inspired and even some powerful acoustic music in a complete package that shows the band holding on to the sound that works for them, while exploring new avenues at the same time.

Playing out like a greatest hits record that was never released, District Line conjures up a series of sounds that encompasses all of the sounds Bob Mould has explored in his lengthy career, from the guitar-heavy days of Husker Du to the perfectly written acoustic tunes he put out today.

Whether you're a fan of Mould's blasting guitars, his exquisite ballads or his forays into electronica, District Line has all of it in scores, wrapped up in an album that, despite its diverse sounds, comes together with a superb feeling of connectedness.

The self-titled debut from Toronto's Sound and Fury is a killer collection of power chords and punk rock riffs combined to create what may be the best party punk album this year.

There's no substance to the lyrics, but the sheer force and style of Sound and Fury is all they need, as they weave back and forth from a wide range of influences, including the Ramones, Buzzcocks, Motorhead and the Circle Jerks, to create a record that's just looking for a good time.

Hailing from Los Angeles, the Briggs play a brand of blue-collar street punk that owes as much of its sound to Boston as it does to L.A., and bears influences of bands from both coasts as well. At times they reflect shades of Rancid or the Distillers, and at times there are elements of the Ducky Boys or Street Dogs. But whichever sound they seem to be emulating, they almost always do it in an infectious way.

On Come All You Madmen, the band bounces back and forth from coast to coast with their sound, delivering powerful fist-pumping crowd-pleasers and an album that's predominantly fun.

After the breakup of their former hardcore band, Fall River, vocalist Allison Bellavance and guitarist Matt Boylan set off in a slightly different direction with Spark is a Diamond. Holding true to their roots in hardcore, the duo reformed a band that took those influences and merged them with the unthinkable – dance music a la Death From Above 1979 and the Bravery. Surprisingly, what could have been an unlistenable train wreck of a mash actually ended up being a surprisingly wonderful, innovative record that also rocks really really hard.

Over the past seven or so months, this album has remained a favorite, not only of mine, but also of many of the folks – even those with hardcore roots themselves – that I have shared it with.