Gang Green - You Got It (1987)

Gang Green - You Got It (1987) Roadrunner Records

So, if 'Another Wasted Night' was just a full on punk record with some dubious experiments with commercial rock, what is 'You Got It'? In the year of 1987 did Gang Green go through their 'metalmorphosis' like many of their peers?

The short answer is: not really, but kinda in some ways. A weird answer for sure, but then again, i'm a weird guy. The thing about Gang Green is, Chris' guitar work never strays into super heavy rock ala Sabbath which SSD and DYS did. At the same time, he doesn't venture into the chugging rhythms of Metallica and Slayer which many 'crossover' bands aped. He sticks firmly in the punk rock meets AC/DC territory, and writes songs that he can sing over. And, indeed, his vocals have improved a lot since 'Another Wasted Night'. Even though the songs are much longer, all of which being in the 3-4
minute region, they don't get boring.

As expected, the soling is pumped-up ten-fold. For sure, Chris rips some tasty leads that save the record from becoming too monotonous. In 'Another Bomb' there's some clean guitars, which makes you think 'ooooooh, power ballad time', but they eventually give way to the ripping punk assault. On the metal side of things, there's the drumming. Like on '19th Hole' from 'Another Wasted Night', there is a lot of double kick work going on here, which I graciously welcome. Guitar wise, there's some tremolo picking here and there and some Maiden-esqe harmonies on 'Party With The Devil'. Other than that, there's not really any metal here.

After hearing 'Another Wasted Night' some years ago, I was put off from discovering the Gang Green back catalog in fear of hearing a complete rock/metal car crash,. Because lets be realistic, they were never going back to their highly influential speedcore attack. If anything, they were going to further their rock style.

Turns out I've been living in fear for no reason. 'You Got It' rips.

Linky Link:
https://mega.co.nz/#!YFwSGIBB!T68ezzMX0Vd18B9isTKCUnF5sgVgC1w-npagTNlz1-Y