I really don't care. They've consistently put out jaw-dropping riffs time and time again and I don't care if they do that for the next 5000 years I will still like and support them.

Now here's my point with all that, you either like the songs and albums a band puts out, or you don't. I've never cared if a band puts out two albums that don't have any progression from one album to the next. I've never cared about that, and I barely acknowledge "a lack of variety" on an album-to-album basis. It's a fine complaint within a particular album, but not on a band's progression.

So...

I don't care that most hardcore punk bands in the 80s all sounded the same. I actually see that as maybe even a good thing, more stuff that I KNOW I WILL LIKE because it's the same. It's not like with damaged where I go in thinking that I like hardcore punk, but I really don't like a long minute of just pure noise-rock like the beginning of "Life of Pain," or songs like "Gimmie Gimmie Gimmie" that have some pretty sick guitar parts, great vocals but childish lyrics and then of course my most hated track is "TV Party" just because I don't care for the subject matter and how silly it is. On that note, "Depression" and "Damage II" are probably the only songs where the lyrics don't bring down the rest of the song. At tops, damaged has 4 good songs.

i think maybe you missed the whole point of TV Party....it's mocking those people rather than celebrating Tv

It wasn't even that Hardcore was getting stale, it was just this incredibly violent element suddenly started appearing and challenging people as to the level of their Punk-ness. What started out fun and cathartic turned ugly real fast.

It never fails to happen - take a bunch of people who are disenfranchised outcasts and give them some organizing principle that they can rally around and they will almost immediately start creating elitist rules about who qualifies to be in their little clique. Some of these turds even started challenging the bands about whether they were Punk enough, and that's when Black Flag had enough and started playing Doom Metal just to piss people off.

The early 80's So Cal punk scene was amazing but it was over too quick thanks to a bunch of stupid, insecure jerks. It was fun while it lasted though (sigh).

I will also defend the whole of Damaged as a stone punk classic from start to finish, but I also dug Black Flags more metal records too. Drinkin' black coffee, stare at the WALL!

Actually, that's still going on, just in a different way, and it probably always will.
I'll leave you with a fitting song:

DEAD REJECTS LYRICS - Punk Rock Is Stupid

It's human nature I guess. I saw a movie about the gay Bear movement - these gay guys who were ostracized for being fat and/or furry formed their own clique and its kind of inspiring until these people I felt sorry for started going on about 'Fake Bears' and all these rules they suddenly had and clearly, they had become just as corrupted and elite as the people who ostracized them in the first place.

We are sheep. It's one of the many reasons I prefer music to people. Of course, now I'm probably being elitist. You can't win!

Got two underrated punk bands for you guys.
The first is ''Bob and the Sagets''(that name xD), a Ska Punk band by the same dudes from the Menzingers. Only one album exists, it has 9 songs.

The second is ''Pung'', a band by the same people of the Emo band ''I Hate Myself''. I can only find the ''State of the Youth'' Ep, but I know they've never made a studio album.

Fugazi

How is Fugazi underrated? A lot of Punk fans know how great Fugazi is! It's one of the most known post-hardcore bands.

They might be the most OVERRATED.

Nah man, the albums are great, their sound is unique in the post-hardcore genre, and their albums don't all sound the same.
I think they deserve the praise.