ALBUM REVIEW: A Tribute To Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 & 2 – Smash Mouse Records

There is an entire generation full of kids who were turned onto punk, metal, and heavier music in general thanks to the Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater games. The soundtracks were a mix of iconic classic bands featured alongside some of the heavy hitters of the late 90s and early 2000s. It was a potent stew that was formative to the rise of both heavy music and skater culture at the turn of the century and was a both a cultural time capsule and glue that helped cement the imagery and sound of a time period steeped in modern day nostalgia. The soundtracks to the first two games are among the most iconic in the series, as there’s few gamers who have played the original Pro Skater and not felt the rush of dropping in to the beginning of GOLDFINGER’s Superman. However, that same rush is certainly not felt during the entire runtime of Smash Mouse Records’ new tribute album to the first two Tony Hawk soundtracks.

Now to give the benefit of the doubt here, all of the songs here, a group of twelve songs selected across the first two soundtracks, were recorded independently by small bands working out of their own homes with limited resources. However, there’s just a real lack of execution and, quite frankly, any talent that stands out on this record, or at least any that does any justice to the artists being covered. There are two songs that end up succeeding somewhat. The first song on the record, a cover of DEAD KENNEDYS‘ Police Truck, is simply just fine. It lacks any of the tooth and bite of the original (a problem that plagues the entire record), but the band covering it, FLAVOURMAIND, manages to keep it melodically sound and similar in spirit, at least.

The second song that works is the last song on the record, a cover of May 16 by LAGWAGON by an unidentified group of Smash Mouse Records roster members. It keeps the pace of the original and adds a new twist by giving it a chiptune aesthetic in conjunction with the traditional punk instrumentation. The vocalist here also does a competent job, but aside from these two tracks, the entire middle of the album is full of little more than bands that have a lot of growing to do, as the tracks all begin to sound like a high school talent show after a while.

There’s an air of experimentation on some songs on the record, but those experimentations unfortunately do not succeed and at mostly end up sounding a bit ridiculous. NO MURDER NO MOUSTACHE’s cover of PAPA ROACH’s Blood Brothers is turned into a melodramatic piano ballad with vocals that are all over the place, and WOLFPUNCH’s covers of Superman by GOLDFINGER and New Girl by THE SUICIDE MACHINES have none of the charm or impact of the originals with vocals that just are not up to snuff, punk or otherwise. FAKE FRIENDS take MILLENCOLIN’s No Cigar and turn it into a weird, EDM mess that is hard to decipher at any angle and certainly does no favours in capturing the spirit of the original. Even the cover of RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE’s Guerilla Radio by SEXY PRETTY THINGS, who do okay at getting the instrumentals to hit decently, lose all the bite and, well, rage, of the song through a totally lacklustre vocal performance.

That’s pretty much what can be said about the rest of the songs on the record. The amateur quality of each recording and performance just makes this album nearly a non-starter. There are a few decent moments, and though the attempts at experimentation are admirable in thought, they simply fail to land in practice, as does the majority of the tracklist, which, regardless of the circumstances in which they were recorded, just don’t hold up or do an adequate job in paying tribute. There’s no doubt that the bands featured here might have been inspired and turned on to heavy music by the Tony Hawk games and their soundtracks, which is always a positive, but a little more practice and effort is needed before their talents can truly translate.

Rating: 3/10

A Tribute To Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 & 2 is out now via Smash Mouse Records.