Album Review: The Suicide Machines/Coquettish “Gebo Gomi”
review by Ricky Frankel
Release: Gebo Gomi
Band: The Suicide Machines/Coquettish
Label: Bad Time Records
Score: 9/10
It’s kind of hard to believe that The Suicide Machines released their Fat Wreck Chords debut, ‘Revolution Spring’ over two years ago. That album is one of the best come-back albums at least of the last ten years. It was a true return to form for the band .The tunes felt fresh and energized, with their same aggression that fans expect from The Suicide Machines. Now that ‘Revolution Spring’ has been out for a bit, the band followed it up not with a new album and not with an EP either. The Suicide Machines took a bit of an unexpected turn and released a split LP with Tokyo’s Coquettish titled, ‘Gebo Gomi.’
Of the nine tracks on the split The Suicide Machines contributed four for their side. Interestingly, this side of the record is a fantastic follow up to ‘Revolution Spring.’ Again, ‘Revolution Spring’ is a great album filled with the band’s genre-defining take on ska-punk as well has some awesome melodic punk tracks, but that record didn’t totally encompass the band’s overall sound. The band’s hardcore side, which can be heard on their underrated full-lengths ‘A Match And Some Gasoline’ and ‘War Profiteering Is Killing Us All’ didn’t make appearance on ‘Revolution Spring.’ This is where their contribution of ‘Gebo Gomi’ comes in. The lead track “Accelerate The Decline” sets the tone perfectly for this release. After a very brief and chaotic intro, The Suicide Machines blast into what can only described as a thrash-y amalgamation of swift chord changes from the guitar and blasting drums. After all these years of fronting the band, Jason Navarro can still masterfully belt out his politically-charged lyrics with his signature aggressive yelling. Interestingly enough, while “Accelerate The Decline” would be considered a hardcore song, it does have its ska moments where things slow down, but at the same time the tension is increased with the sharp feedback ringing in the background.
Of course, The Suicide Machines don’t just stick to their hardcore sound on their side of ‘Gebo Gomi.’ There’s “Awake” which is an incredibly catchy, melodic ska-punk tune with another helping of political lyrics. It’s tracks like “Theater Of The Absurd” and “Slipping Into Darkness” where The Suicide Machines break into their ska-punk sound. Fans of band’s prior releases will be very stoked especially with “Theater Of The Absurd.” It’s a classic Suicide Machines tune. Along with the sharp-sounding upstrokes in the background there is a very intricate guitar riff that is played in the beginning. And interspersed through out the track an organ accompanies the band during the slower break downs. Rather than screaming, Jason Navarro switches to singing mode in this song, but you can tell he’s just as angry by the visuals that are portrayed in the lyrics: “All of this pollution from mankind’s quest for greed/Has ruined our oceans now/Destroyed the Great Barrier Reef.” In just four songs not only do The Suicide Machines show how much their style has expanded and grown over the years, the tunes also exemplify Jay Navarro’s dynamism as a frontman.
Coquettish’s side of ‘Gebo Gomi’ also starts out with a hardcore song. “You Decide” begins with a drawn-out intro consisting of highly distorted guitars that follow a simple chord progressing, which then gets backed up by some screaming octaves. Suddenly all hell breaks loose where everything is sped up. The guitars and drums are being played at lightning speed behind harsh screaming. Seemingly out of nowhere Coquettish managed to include a clean ska interlude that includes more melodic vocals for a brief moment. Just from reading about the track, “You Decide” sounds like it could be quite chaotic — and it is chaotic, but in the best possible way. Trust me, Coquettish makes it all work and it rocks.
Coquettish also puts forth a great effort with their skacore tunes, too. Songs like “Falling Down” and “Burn” most notably show that. With “Burn” you immediately get hit with the great “call and respond” vocals from the band. At first, you wonder if this is yet enough thrash-y hardcore tune from the band, but on this track (and pretty much through out their side of this split) Coquettish have knack for just switching to a clean ska sound abruptly with no lead up. And once again, it works for them quite well. Compared to The Suicide Machines’ skacore tunes, I’d say that Coquettish might lean more on the crust-punk side by just a hair. That might be because the lead vocals do tend to be bit more raspy and sharp. You can definitely hear it in “Falling Down” and in the gang vocals-heavy, “Song #3.”
While ‘Gebo Gomi’ clocks in at just eighteen minutes, it is jam-packed full of amazing ska-punk and hardcore. The Suicide Machines absolutely hit it out of the park with their songs on this record. And for those who are just getting an introducing to Coquettish (like me), congratulations you have found another skacore band that truly do the sub-genre justice. The only small criticism I have of ‘Gebo Gomi’ is that it’s too short. It flies by. I think that it would have been cool for each band to record a cover for this split in the same vein as the BYO Records split albums from back in the day, but I don’t hold that against the bands here. Can you blame a fan for wanting more ska-punk though? Anyway, ‘Gebo Gomi’ is an awesome record from back to front. Do not sleep on it.
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About the Author
Denise Borders 39, Los Angeles. Denise founded PWV in 2008 and remains the primary manager and photographer/videographer. She is not secretly obsessed with Joey Cape.
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