USA: Casualty

Casualties of War
$9.95
This movie depicts our soldiers and that war in a way that is about as biased and far to the left as it can get. I picked this piece of trash up in a discount bin at Wal-Mart. After watching it, I know why it was in that bin {right after watching it, it was in my trash bin}. There are bad people in every walk of life, military included, but the way these soldiers are portrayed; violent, murdering, heartless, rapists, is over the top. This movie is implying in many ways, that this was common practice by our military HEROES, and cover ups for this behavior was accepted.

I am confident that Sean Penn loved making this movie - this guy is about as un-American as it gets, and I am sure he jumped at the chance to play a role that undermines the greatness of those that served our country and the sacrifice that many of them made. Brian De Palma should be ashamed of himself for this left wing propaganda piece of trash of a movie.

We Are All We Have
$11.98
After 20 years and 7 records, we've all become familiar with the love it or hate it Casualties sound, but one might wonder how many times it could have been rehashed without getting old. So far the Casualties have been able to keep it fresh, and I really enjoy the newest releases "On the Front Line" and "Under Attack," but I was really excited when I heard that some outside influence was going to make an appearance on "We Are All We Have"

This album, in a nutshell, is what worked about the last two CD's thrown into one and then sprinkled here and there with some genre bending. It explains why the Casualties have been touring with bands like Trash Talk, Leftover Crack, and Municipal Waste, if nothing else. There's a little thrash influence, a little reggae influence, a little metal influence, but more or less this stays true to the Casualties formula and I believe the only people who won't enjoy this CD are those that are still stuck waiting for a sequel to "For the Punx"

There are more sing-along punk tunes on here than any other Casualties' CD, with "We Are All We Have," "Lonely on the streets" and "Hearts bleed black" being the catchiest with lots of whoas and ooohs and hey hey hey's from Jake and Rick. The bests songs on this CD, however, are the ones where the Casualties do a little bit of experimenting, which is something that has happened very little in their 20 years career. We have the thrash-ridden "War is Business" that will rip your face off for just under two minutes, followed by "In the Tombs" which opens and closes in a Sublime/Authority Zero fashion. My personal favorite is "Looking Thru Bloodshot Eyes" which opens with a gritty and eery sounding guitar riff from Jake before breaking into blitz paced punk and then giving into one of the most heartfelt bridges I've ever seen from these guys.

Negatives: "Apocalypse Today" seems like a miss to me right now, opening with a female voice ranting before going into a pretty generic number with a harsh breakdown and pretty "been there done that" lyrics. Maybe it'll grow on me but for now it's pretty bleh. Also, mixing is not as sharp as it has been on the last few albums. Sometimes Rick and Jake are way too quiet with their chanting vocals and sometimes the bass is inaudible, which is a shame because Rick seems to get better and better the longer he's been with this band.

I, like the Casualties, enjoy all kinds of music which is what made this so great for me. For the people that live, breath, and die by street punk this may be too experimental for you. This won't win the Casualties any new fans either, because if you didn't like them before, this isn't different enough to change your mind. This CD will sit best with open minded fans of this band's previous works. Make sure to pick up all the other full length CDs from this band before indulging too deep in this, but to those who have been following the band for as long as I have, have at it, 'cause "We Are All We Have" is a keeper.

On Common Ground
$9.95
I had hoped this video would offer the viewer more detail about the battle of the Huertgen Forest. The veterns from both side don't really go into too much detail and that is not something to fault them for, war is hell afterall. I wish the producers of this documentary would have had more history of this battle, 60,000 casualties is no small number. A six month campaign would have enough information to put into a documentary on this battle and the verterns who made it through it. It is nice to see that both German and American soldiers can come together in the spirit of brotherhood and forgiveness, that is one great thing about the video. I would not find this video very useful in its entirity for a history classroom because of the lack of detail and explaination. Clips from it could open up some great discussion.