The following review of "ECW: Anarchy Rocks" is based on my belief that a wrestling album should be a soundtrack for the company and it's TV shows. The album should not just be a compilation of new metal songs that have little relation to the company's product.

The "WWF: The Music" series has done very well so other wrestling companies such as WCW and ECW have released similar albums in the past few years. The WWF albums contained the original theme songs used by their wrestlers. About half of the songs on the WCW album were original theme tracks, a few songs were songs by artists such as Kid Rock and Metallica that became theme songs for the company, and a few were songs that had nothing to do with the product. ECW's first release, "Extreme Music Vol. 1," followed a similar approach.

The latest ECW release, "Anarchy Rocks," has little to do with ECW. ECW is a smaller wrestling company and they've always used established songs like Pantera's "Walk" and Metallica's "Enter Sandman" as themes. I'd imagine it would be difficult and expensive to make a compilation albums featuring so many high profile bands because the first album contained mostly cover versions by less prominent bands. This was acceptable as they were still the songs that ECW fans have been hearing for years and they were also treated to some original ECW cuts. "Anarchy Rocks" contains NO original ECW songs, two cover versions of songs ECW uses, one song by the original artist, and a few songs that have been used as trailer music. The majority of the album consists of songs that have never been played on an ECW telecast. I don't understand why they didn't include original ECW tracks such as Tajiri's and the Baldies' themes. Or what about the old Eliminators theme? Songs by "Dope" or "Drain STH" could have been included as their music is often used on ECW.

"Anarchy Rocks contains songs by bands like Static X, Coal Chamber, Linkin Park, and UPO, among others. The songs are fine if you like those bands but they have NOTHING to do with ECW. The album does contain two cover versions of music ECW uses but they're pretty mediocre; FM Racket does a rap-metal version of Ice Cube and Dr. Dre's "Natural Born Killaz" and Jackyl's Jesse James Dupree covers AC/DC's "Highway to Hell."

If this was a compilation album without the ECW name on it, it would be a fine album. The fact that it's an ECW album means the songs should have some relation to ECW. I don't get it. Wrestling fans won't like it because it doesn't have their ECW songs on it while regular music fans probably won't even look at it due to it's wrestling theme. It could have been done so much better. If you're a hardcore ECW fan and you need an ECW CD, buy the first one.

Recommended: No