Bean Ball

During the late 90's, by the time Yellow Machinegun's rip-roaring Build & Destroy album was released, they had built themselves quite a positive reputation as a live act in Japan, opening for legendary thrash and crossover acts from across the world such as Slayer and Stormtroopers of Death. They also shared the stage with numerous groove and nu-metal acts, as that was the unfortunate trend at the time. Truth be told, Yellow Machinegun's work pretty much blew away all of the current releases by the band's they were warming the stage up for back then, including Slayer. Not a surprise really, as Build & Destroy didn't actually suck. In fact, it was so damn good and such an adrenaline rush that I figured any of their other releases would be of the same caliber, thus Bean Ball entered my radar. After enough listens, I can conclude that it's not bad, but it's no Build & Destroy. Not even close.

The good news is that Yellow Machinegun didn't succumb to the bad (as in ultra-shitty) influences riddling those traveling big names from the West. Either they had no intention or desire to groove, or just couldn't feel the groove full-stop no matter how much effort they put in, which is fine by me. Instead, the band's gears shifted well into punk-hardcore territory, ditching palm-muted riffs for the most part and showing a stronger enthusiasm towards D-beat rhythms. That hint of a tenebrous nature in Kaori's hoarse growling and screaming is absent as she opts for a straight-up hellacious shout with frequent forays into nasally "singing", as if she’s yammering away with her nostrils clamped shut by a clothespin. The energy is still present, with some of the songs warping into blastbeat mania, and their overall sound is still pretty damn heavy, although with a little less bass and a bit of a punkish twang to the guitars.

It's generally a fun time, the lyrics are as entertainingly dumb as ever, and "Over the Wall, Where's my Ball" is a feisty rampant anthem, but without a more aggressive metallic edge to their riffs the songs lose that underlying thread of menace. It's like Yellow Machinegun just evolved into another one of those "crazy Japanese bands" fans of quirky stuff from Melt Banana to The Boredoms can safely appreciate without losing any indie-cred points. It's a somewhat rare case of a group becoming more predictable and typical by becoming quirkier, kind of how a lot of Japan entertainment made with 'exporting to the West' in mind seems to roll. Bean Ball is fairly good stuff, but their late 90's output is preferable, when Yellow Machinegun were practically essential for those looking for decent shit during that dark era of thrash metal.