The Value of Mistrust

Thanks to the ever-encroaching influence of heavy metal through the grindcore and screamo subgenres, punk music since the turn of the millennium has become bass-heavy to an extent that would have been unimaginable in the mid-'70s. This makes the defiantly trebly guitar sound of "Insomnia," the pummeling first track from Crash & Burn's second album, sound refreshing and exciting in this context. All 12 tracks on The Value of Mistrust stick toward the high end, down to Billy Brown's vocals, which owe a lot to the yell-and-chant school of British Oi! and street punk. In fact, there's a strong old-school U.K. influence over most of this album, from the swaggering mid-tempo of most of the songs (as opposed to the wound-up hyperspeed of American hardcore) to the way that guitarist Phil Valentine isn't philosophically opposed to whipping out the occasional brief solo. Nothing on The Value of Mistrust is likely to turn the punk world on its ear, but it's a solidly engaging listen.