Fear has somehow survived two decades. As indicated by the title, Fear is on familiar ground here, with another 40 ounces of beer-fueled mayhem. They don't exactly venture into new territory, remaining with their punk-metal sound here. But what does one want? It's a Fear record, showing that Lee Ving doesn't even slow down with the wife and child. Although, from the internal photo, Ving seems to get more grizzled with each passing season. Perhaps the large beer intake is the cause. As for the music, it's a nice collection of tunes, but nothing much. More drunk punk for your drunk punk dollar. Some of the tracks, such as "Catfight," could do with a little less imbibing, as that song in particular sounds like two overweight intoxicated strippers half-heartedly rolling on the ground, as if in some feigned catfight-like performance for a bad porno company. Fear could do with a listen to both the Gaza Strippers' "Catfight" as well as the output of the band Catfight. Also, "What Is Best in Life" inexplicably begins to quote dialogue from Conan the Barbarian. ~ Jeremy Salmon, All Music Guide
American Beer is the fourth studio album by Fear, released in 2000. Many of the album's tracks were written and recorded during Fear's earlier years, but have not appeared on any prior studio albums.
Surgery was originally titled Mengele (a reference to Josef Mengele, the infamous Nazi doctor) and was performed live numerous times by the band in the 1980s, including during a performance on New Wave Theater.
The Bud Club was originally titled Budweiser and appeared on the bootleg of the same name.
Hootchie Cootchie Man was originally made famous by Muddy Waters, but was also performed by Fear in 1983 on the Get Crazy soundtrack.
Catfight was written by original guitarist Philo Cramer and recorded for the band's unreleased 1979 demo and for 'The Coup d'État Lab Band', a one-time recording project of Cramers. It was also performed live many times.
Hard "Cotto" Salami is a rehashed version of the well-known Fear song Beef Bologna.
Beer:30 was apparently written in the early 1980s but was never recorded and never or rarely performed live during that time.
Beerheads was originally entitled Skinheads, and was performed by the band in the early to mid 1990's.
