Boston Crossover Kings Gang Green made a few waves back in the day, providing an easy-to-digest keg party soundtrack for the generation of metalheads that liked to add a frisson of punk credibility to their headbanging/chugging activities.

On this new Dissonance compilation, which brings together all of the band’s recorded output for the Roadrunner label, released at the height of their notoriety, anthemic nuggets like Let’s Drink Some Beer and Bartender will bring happy memories flooding back for anyone who was a fan back in the day who may have strayed from the faith over the years. It’ll also remind you that the band were pretty adept at turning basic, simple AC/DC-styled rock and turning it into something distinctly more ‘credible’. Despite the shambolic, party-hard image, Gang Green were pretty sharp musicians and song writers.

But then crossover always was the perfect medium for hardcore punkers once they’d learned to play, and time and again here, the guitar injections of Fritz Erickson, the thunderous drumming of Brian Betzger and Joe Gittleman (who later ended up in Ska punk Gods The Mighty Mighty Bosstones)’s nifty bass additions remind the listeners just how slick this outfit was.

Party With The Devil, from 1987’s You Got It, is probably the best studio exposition of the band’s sonic template, mixing stentorian trad metal with lissom skatepunk in equal measure with devastating effect, but, if you’ve never heard this band before you should probably direct yourself to the fifteen track live album, Can’t LIVE Without It, which is included here in full for your convenience and enjoyment.

Opening with the hard-to-deny one-two of Let’s Drink Some Beer and Bartender, the fun doesn’t let up for forty-odd minutes as the band, led from the front by the redoubtable Chris Doherty, lay waste to London’s Marquee Club in inimitable and very enjoyable style. By 1990 when this set was recorded, the band was a well-oiled killing machine, with Erickson in particular impressing with some incendiary guitar playing; the fury with which the band (by now featuring Josh Pappe on bass) assault We’ll Give It To You is a joy to behold; there’s an immediacy to the sound (the tapes were rushed from the gig to London’s Wessex Studios, where they were mixed by legendary producer Tony Wilson) that adds real impact to the music and you can’t help but be swept along with it all, especially if you’re able to listen at a suitable volume…

We’ll Give It To You releases on January 13th.