Smash The Offspring Artist

{|The Offspring|}'s second album for {|Epitaph|} did the impossible: it landed in the Top Five, unheard of for independent records. {|The Offspring|} crossed over due to the raucous, Eastern-tinged single {|Come Out and Play,|} which stopped and started just like {|Nirvana|}, only without the Seattle trio's recklessness. The record stayed in the charts because {|the Offspring|} sounded relentlessly heavy, no matter how much the band claimed to be {|punk|}. Their tempos are slower than traditional {|hardcore|}, and their attack is as heavy as {|Metallica|}. But they acted like they were {|punk|}, with odes to no {|Self Esteem|} and singing about fighting in school. Nothing on the album matches the incessant catchiness of the singles, but {|Smash|} is a solid record, filled with enough heavy riffs to keep most teenagers happy. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine