Father's Golden Fish

Aside from a couple tasteful solos, what we have here is a hardcore album. Yellow Machinegun stuck so closely to their established formula, any album would be a decent starting point for new listeners. Father's Golden Fish does have some of the markings of a debut – the band's playing is more loose and simple with less of a metallic edge.

Surprisingly, the album has the highest ratio of slow songs. “Fortune Cookie”, “Scary” and “親不知” are built on powerful, trudging riffs worthy of The Age of Quarrel era Cro-Mags. Later material beefed up the guitar sound. The relatively thinner guitar on this record gives the bass more prominence and its heavy lines especially shine as they barrel along these slower tracks. Most of the album still charges forward at the manic pace Yellow Machinegun are known for.

There are good riffs herein, but the greatest strength is the boundless energy. True to the essence of hardcore punk, musicianship takes a backseat to unbridled zeal. Monotony is warded off with a track listing that frequently alternates between slow and fast songs, as well as throwing in a few quirks like a part where the tempo drops and it sounds like a breakdown is coming on, only to blast right back into thrash. Similarly the gang vocals of “Scary” and the charmingly awkward clean singing in “Oh Die! Oh!! Choose Die!!!” stick out because the majority of the time bassist Kaori Okumura screams her ass and her head off. She's ferocious.

Check out her delivery on “Give Me Your Chocolate”. If she ever confronts you in real life, you can be damn sure you'll surrender that Snickers bar. As the title of the song makes clear, the lyrics aren't the usual metal fare. They display a cheeky streak like Stormtroopers of Death (whom they later covered and shared a split with) but tending more towards cartoonish absurdity, and constructed of less than perfect English which is the band's most typically Japanese quality. Though it's not all a goof. “親不知” enjoins the benefits of proper dental hygiene. “Dental treatment costs a lot of money,” Kaori shrieks and you ought to heed her warning. I've never faced off with a serial killer or battled zombies, but I have endured the horrors of a root canal bill.

Much of Father's Golden Fish is merely serviceable and it ends in anticlimax. This isn't the sort of music that demands virtuosity, but Yellow Machinegun would sharpen their skills and release more inspired material. Still, this has its share of standout moments and remains fun even when generic. Go ahead, crank up the volume and hand over the chocolate – it's bad for your teeth, anyway.