Review: Forced Reality “Unheard, Unreleased and Under the Boot” CD

This is the former band of current 100 Demons vocalist Pete Morcey, and these "rare" tracks were recorded across 1999 - 2000 during their somewhat short-lived reunion... as the group originally formed way the fuck back in 1986! Apparently their brand of punk rock/oi was fairly influential in its day, so I'm not really sure how these newer tracks would compare to the band's heyday (though I believe a few of these songs are re-recordings of some of their classics), but I'm definitely far from blown away by this stuff. Sure, I've never been much of an oi fan, and yeah, these are decent punk songs, so... look out for midpaced tempos, gruff singing vocals, just the right amount of melody, token gang backups, etc. Included are the three tracks from the "Give 'em the Brass" 7", two compilation tracks, one song from the "13 Years of Forced Reality" collection, and four previously unreleased cuts - among them covers of the Violators' "Summer of '81" and "Gang Warfare" by Criminal Class. "Mama Cried" is much more laidback and has a bluesy rock sort of thing going on that I don't care for, but faster and catchier tunes like "We're Not Alone" and "Hooligans Shenanigans" are definitely something I can appreciate. None of this stuff is all that aggressive to me, I might like to hear one or two tracks along the lines of "Your Money and Your Life" that would go even farther towards a little harder edge, but then again I dig the overt melodies and killer singing in "Till the Day I Die". The sound quality is fine. Rugged, but fine. There are at least four recording sessions represented herein, but the disc flows well and the differences between each set of songs are quite minimal. The drums and bass sound fine, the guitars are pretty thin and rocked out, and the vocals lean just a tad out front (but that's just about right). The packaging keeps it pretty simple with a few band photos, brief liner notes about the release, simple artwork, and the lyrics. The lyrics are basically typical street punk/oi types of songs dealing with drinking, being a skinhead, working your fingers to the bone, etc. I'm not totally into this kind of stuff, but fans of the style might be into checking this out, especially if for some reason they're new to the band. I'm a little confused as to how "rare" these songs actually are since most of them seem to be available in alternate form on other releases, so I'm not sure how essential this particular collection is, but...