Taste of Chaos is over for another year but for those who can’t wait until ‘07, The Best of Taste of Chaos Two has just hit the shelves. The compilation features not only bands who played on the tour but forty bands of the punk, emo/screamo, hardcore and metal genres. It’s a two-disc compilation that loosely divides the softer, more poppy music onto disc one and the heavier tunes on disc two.
All the bands from the Aussie leg of the tour are featured including Taking Back Sunday, Thursday, Anti-Flag, Underoath, Senses Fail, Saosin and our own Parkway Drive. However, some of the main acts from last year’s tour and compilation such as The Used, Killswitch Engage and Story of the Year are not included.
Disc one starts off with band-of-the-moment, Underoath with their track In Regards to Myself. The Smashup provide something a little different with their punk rock track No Name. It grabs you with the opening chant, “Okay, shut up! The dead guy’s got the floor!” and will soon have you singing along to the catchy chorus. Norma Jean offer one of the heavier songs on Disc One with their loud and edgy Blueprints for Future Homes. If you’re into more progressive screamo, you’ll like New Zealand’s Cold by Winter. They present the listener with a diverse track, We the Living, that features a long instrumental section in the middle of the song and is quite impressive.
As I Lay Dying are the openers for Disc Two and with their throatier screams, heavier drums and louder guitars, they set you up for what is in store throughout the rest of the disc. Bleeding Through and A Life Once Lost are two bands that definitely deserve a mention with their songs Love in Slow Motion and Vulture, respectively. They are both hard-hitting songs full of grunt. Strapping Young Lad’s Wrong Side features some impressive guitar work and Job For a Cowboy’s Entombment of a Machine is one for fans of the heavier stuff with some pretty demonic vocals!
The compilation is dominated by screamo, hardcore and metal, although Anti-Flag provide a refreshing taste of punk with their catchy, politically charged Press Corpse. And Helmet is more on the grunge/alternative-metal side. Although a lot of the bands do sound somewhat similar, they don’t tend to blend together too much as they are mixed up over the two discs. And you’ll probably be introduced to some new artists.
It’s great to see quite a few Aussie bands featured (even if they are just shoved on the end of each disc) with The Hot Lies, The Getaway Plan, Horsell Common, Carpathian, Behind Crimson Eyes and I Killed the Prom Queen all contributing. However, Wolfmother seems to be an odd inclusion and doesn’t really fit with the rest of the music.
Overall, it’s a pretty good mix. If you’re a fan of the Taste of Chaos tour, you’ll be a fan of the album. If you think the tour’s a load of crap, this compilation probably isn’t for you.
