10 More Near Perfect Punk Rock Albums

Non-conformity is the name of the game.

By Joshua Cooley /

Punk has never been a genre that conforms to the rules. Since it's conception in the early '60s groups were going against the grain; taking aspects from popular rock, feeding them through poorly cared for equipment and generating enough noise to cause a scene. It's a genre that both screams for attention while simultaneously not giving a s**t if it receives any.

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If there's a checklist for punk, then point one would be not to follow the checklist. Having said that, point two would be: play faster than anyone else; there might also be a vague mention about having distain for authority, and at the very least you need some attitude. But, after that all bets are off.

As punk has developed over the decades it has taken many shapes and forms, mutating rather than evolving. Sure, there's the punk purists who espouse anarchy and non-conformity, while rigidly sticking to a three chord song structure, but those groups never last.

These are the albums that pushed those anarchic buttons while breathing new life into one of rock's most influential and long lasting genres.

10. Doll Skin: Love Is Dead And We Killed Her (2019)

Pop-punk has been making a visceral resurgence over the last few years. The late '90s early 2000s is all the range right now, the era's fashion wear is now considered vintage... , and so is the music. For anyone who grew up during this period, it's a brutal reminder that time is ticking away... But fear not, there's still some fun to be had.

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You might think punk is all about being as loud and aggressive as possible, with little to no attention to melody. Well, Doll Skin will challenge those preconceptions. Their second studio album blends the melody of naughties pop-punk, while incorporating the kind of metal energy, you'd expect from a group whose debut was produced by Megadeath bassist, David Ellefson.

It's a marked improvement on the group's earlier releases; the themes were all about lost love and cliched references to girl power. With this record, however, they found the fortitude to tackle subjects a little less worn out or obvious. There's a fire in these girls and they have the musical chops to back it up. They thrash hard, but there's a precision to the riffs that give their sound a mixture of raw energy and technical sophistication.

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