Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

The sound is relentless, but like a thunderstorm captured on film, you know deep down it is only half the story, that the experience is lacking an essential component, a vinyl assault on every sense that makes the Supercharged overload and create a frenetic energy that is felt by all.

Whilst it is a welcome return to the power that undoubtedly lives and presides in The Offspring, Supercharged, the brand-new album from the deeply loved band, has all the attitude, all the dynamic, all the fierce groove and Punk belligerence, and yet it somehow feels lacking, and it comes down to one small, otherwise non issue, the fact is there is not the absolute peak of aural/lyrical endurance that has come before; there is consistency, but no crowning glory that has been attested to on previous albums.

The band, now with the full time addition of Todd Morse on bass, and the inclusion for the first time of the excellent Jonah Nimoy and Brandon Pertzborn on board the sonic machine, do create a full blast of Punk TNT  which is audibly exciting, and the connection between Dexter Holland and Noodles is to be seen as assured as ever; however if you are going to bring tracks such as The Fall Guy, Come To Brazil, Hanging By A Thread, and You Can’t Get There From Here, you need to supply the audience with a reason to press down on the plunger and see the cascade of falling rock for the moment of power it should be.

To miss out on the lyrical high seems to downplay the achievement of the album, which overall is a steady and joyful beat, a fast frenetic pulse that stirs the blood, but which doesn’t allow the mind to see the explosion; it feels it, it just doesn’t know where it came from.

An album perhaps of compromise, of scaling a mountain to lay the dynamite on its peak but using a chisel instead to chip away at the height laid bare. 

Ian D. Hall