Build & Destroy

Two horned figures—a skeleton and a robot—stand back to back, their legs converging into a lumpy mass which itself turns into roots. In one hand they hold wads of paper money; the other arm is held high and ends in a toilet paper holder rather than a hand, with a tattered strand of the tissue trailing down toward the eager mouth of fanged tree stumps. Illustrator Kaori Okumura can't be accused of dealing in cliches. Yellow Machinegun fans will recognize Okumura as their bassist and vocalist. On Build & Destroy, as well as Spot Remover and the Again single, she also provided cover art that perfectly fits the band's weird aesthetic.

Drawing from 80s thrash and related subgenres, the band's music was constructed from well-worn elements, but arranged in a way that gave it personality. Plus their playing was always on fire, channeling the original spirit of the genre. While none of their releases were drastically different from one another, their third outing has the distinction of being the heaviest, with an emphasis on mid-pace tempos and bottom-heavy production. Okumura's vocals too are weightier, plumbing the depths of harshness in an already less-than-friendly voice. Even when using a higher tone it's often with a growling timbre that is simply demonic; “Memory” and “Red Sun” contain prime examples.

The punk influence is less pronounced, though not absent as the opening riffs of “The New World” and “Heartache” attest to. The latter song is a good illustration of how the band changes up song structures in simple ways. During the chorus, the guitars drop out so it's just screaming and drums, until some short guitar licks start popping up. It results in a song bubbling with anxious energy. “Right or Left” shows similar creativity. At 3:40, it's the longest track. Quick, staccato notes open it, followed by a crash cymbal hit and bass line that makes the ground tremble: rinse and repeat a few times before moving into a barreling groove riff, over which is some talking, a technique the band was fond of but is rarely used on this album. Then come the vocals proper: this is a zenith of severity for Okumura—we're talking screams that will dislodge eyes from sockets, burn hair down to the follicle, make craters in the pavement: real brutal shit. There's a fade out, only for the song to come blasting back a few seconds later. While they make sure to include variations like these, most songs stick to the tried and true. “My Eyes Under the Sands” and “Need 2” ensure the album begins and ends with straight-ahead thrash. “Nightmare” and the title track feature furious tremolo to get you pumped up.

Kyoko Moriya is dependable as ever. Whether the situation calls for a riff that's aggressive, catchy or some combination of the two, she always has one on hand. She leaves short, rocking solos scattered throughout. Okumura gets in on the action with a brief bass solo on “If I Had the Legs”. Bass always was a highlight of Yellow Machinegun, but especially so on Build & Destroy. It's not merely because of the Lou Ferrigno-sized tone, but Okumura's assured playing that doesn't let such a tone go to waste. She knows when to play supporting role and when to take charge like in the swaggering “Red Sun”. Baffling punctuation isn't the only thing setting apart “Enjoy Your Life ~This Cliff of Wastes~”. Forsaking the deep tone of the rest of the album, this track's bass has a twang perfect for the surf rock touches Okumura brings to it. Drummer Tamami Okado prefers steady, pounding beats to breakneck ones. Her fills are judicious, but effective. Too bad she's so frugal with the toms, which have a satisfying resonance.

If you liked any of their other albums, Build & Destroy is guaranteed to please. Yellow Machinegun knew what worked and stuck to what they knew. Yet each album had its own feeling. Here they flex their metal muscles, giving nods to the groove sound that exploded earlier in the decade while continuing to uphold their mission of thrashing like the greats did.

A pretty reasonable number of reviews concerning late 90's thrash metal acts tend to commence with an overview of how overwhelmingly shitty that era was for thrash releases. And in a general sense they are all correct, with the primary acts from the 80's heyday either remaining dormant or dishing out utter garbage or half-assed material with hardly a trace of actual thrash elements. As for 1999, though a few bands were on the verge of a revival and offering decent thrash assaults such as Testament and Sodom, for followers of the genre it's probably best known as the year that gave the world Risk. There was also Metallica's corny S&M experiment, but to me that was just a bunch of their catalog draped in muzak. Back then I didn’t see any reason to pay acute attention to the remnants of thrash metal, thus I had no idea that a band like Yellow Machinegun existed halfway across the world, and that these three Japanese girls had just released perhaps the most feral thrash/crossover sledgehammer of the year.

First of all, Build & Destroy is one fast fucking album. Yes there's the dirgy doom of "Right or Left" clocking in at an epic length 3:38 minutes, but for the most part the tempo is mostly set to what Slayer was basking in during the mid-80's, but with some songs including "Nightmare" and the unhinged title track bursting forth with the old-school blasting pace of Cryptic Slaughter. Not a technical act by any stretch of the imagination, the band gets the job done by performing these simple yet feisty head-banging riffs with tight precision. There's also a few bluesy punk-ish guitar solos that pop up for a few bars in certain numbers, which gives Kaori's throat a bit of breathing space. Drummer Tamami, while not one to embellish things with numerous rolls or jazzy asides, keeps the momentous thrust of their sound locked-in without any noticeable lagging. Not fancy, but a tight fucking unit.

Kaori's rabid delivery of her lyrics evokes the harsher "women in a state of homicidal psychosis" growling rage provided by such luminaries as Sabina Classen from Holy Moses and Nuclear Death's Lori Bravo, yet with a more punk/hardcore sneer to her tone. Her absolutely unrelenting throat mangling barks are not only espoused with such inordinate and passion-fueled fury, but are spot-on rhythmically, unleashing a slew of garbled English words in a punctual manner that gives these tunes that extra aura of pure adrenaline. The lyrics, while dealing with subject matter that offers variations on the theme of nightmares and 'hating the entire world', can either be interpreted as horrific attempts at English writing by non-English speakers, or some kind of genius beat poetry that I'm just too unenlightened to fully comprehend. It doesn't really matter though, because when she yells out "HEEEAAARRRTAAAACHE!!!!", I can certainly ascertain that an ex waltzing into the studio during her vocal recording session of that track would have resulted in the immediate loss of testicles and teeth.

With only one rhythm guitar track, production quality becomes a key factor, and the engineering bastards did an outstanding job. The guitar is chunky and mean, the bass is thick and throbbing, and the drums are loud but not overbearing whatsoever. Another quality I dig about this album is that Yellow Machinegun plays it straight regarding their chosen genre. Considering the quirky moniker and the fact the band is composed of three Japanese ladies who don't go out of their way to look menacing in promo-shots, I was expecting sudden divergences into goofy non-metal disco or god-knows-what territory, a couple of cute novelty tunes thrown in and maybe some high-pitched girly back-up vocals. In other words, I was expecting Japanese weirdness, but nothing of the sort occurs for this effort. In fact, the only few moments when Kaori isn't in utter batshit indignation mode are when she skulks in a low monotone voice like the calm before the shitstorm.

Despite a disproportionate amount of songs abusing the crap out of the open E chord to an extent that a song like "Enjoy Your Life ~This Cliff of Wastes~", based around the A chord, comes across like the band is experimenting out of their comfort zone, I found this album to be an entertaining romp of crossover thrash throughout led by an absolutely admirable vocal onslaught. Leaning towards thrash in the sturdy riff department while conveying an abrasive yet punk attitude, and without succumbing to dull groove metal, rap-infused expositions or the penchant for mid-tempo chug-fests still plaguing the scene during the time of this release, Yellow Machinegun pumped out one hell of a beast with Build & Destroy. Simple, streamlined and frenzied, with insane lyrics delivered insanely, this machinegun is fully automatic.