A Match and Some Gasoline (Side One Dummy)
by Lauren Bussard
Perhaps it was the 5000 cigarettes Jason Navarro (vocalist of The Suicide Machines) has probably smoked since ’96 when they released their first full-length album (Destruction By Definition – the best one to date, by the way), but when I excitedly popped in this latest disc, I couldn’t help but notice first and foremost that Navarro’s voice now sounds like it’s been run through a meat grinder. But I can accept that, although I do miss the smooth, jokey harmonies that used to characterize their albums (the vocals that we all know and love do shine through – barely – on a couple of this album’s tracks, most notably “Split the Time” and “Kaleidoscope,” which blow the rest of the album out of the water). Otherwise, A Match and Some Gasoline simply proves that The Suicide Machines have evolved a little: Like all bands have a right to do, despite how much their fans want to keep them in the same little box forever. They now sound a little bit less like… well, themselves, and a whole lot more like Rage Against The Machine mixed with 311 and even at times, (GASP!) Linkin Park. Which is a rather unfortunate comparison that thankfully never occurred to me when I listened to them before. I guess we all grow up eventually… or something like that.
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