We'll Go Machete

It was one of those glorious, unforeseen moments that the searcher lives for, that moment when he/she morphs (or gets morphed, it's not really clear) from explorer to discoverer. Yep, happened here, and not too long ago, either - Just seconds, really, after finding We'll Go Machete on Bandcamp.

Here they are. Left to right, we've got John Christoffel on guitar, bassist Chris May, Rachel Fuhrer is behind the drumkit, and the singer/guitarist is Paul Warner.

Though we thought we were the great discoverers, it turns out we're a little late to the show: We'll Go Machete has been racking up some serious critical clout long before we found 'em, with some great reviews on toeleven.net, New Artillery, and a few other blogs. Even the Chronicle gets in a good word, describing their first CD as "...Jagged and unrelenting, Machete launches post-hardcore tantrums in an early Dischord Records vein on opener "Red Maddens the Bull," while "The Old Beast Will Crumble" teeters toward sludge metal. It's a promise and a threat."

Heh, apparently we're slower than everyone else. But catching on, as you will too - Their sound is at once harshly familiar and refreshingly sparse (which partially explains the "punk" label), abundantly hook-ish yet reeking with well-known rhythmic progressions. Watch this one reel you in with that promising rhythm guitar, snatch you up with the drumkit and bass line, then nail you down with the emphatic vox and crunching guitar:

There's a path in rock music that punk and metal both fork off from, but We'll Go Machete has blazed their own trail betwixt 'em; a bit too disciplined and clean for a mohawk; a bit too modest for a leather codpiece. Here's a good example, starting us off with a metallic axe grind, then pumping into the steady, simplistic bellow of a punkish chord progression:

Here's another excellent emphatically-metallic punk piece; with those tiny, familiarly-metal intervals giving the melody that sinister touch; then nudged over into punk territory by Warner's vox:

That's how they do it, with Fuhrer's punkish, too-much-crashing cymbals, Warner's vehement bellowing, the bass and guitars dealing out healthy doses of death metal thrash punk; and all of it wrapped up with some excellent production values. You'll go machete too, if you're not careful.

They've played all over town, Emo's and Flamingo Cantina and Red 7 and Mohawk and Beerland and ... So catching them live isn't a challenge (they're playing Scoot Inn October 7th, you oughta catch that one).

We can't let you go until you've taken in their latest, the steadily-brilliant "Strong Drunk Hands". We insist:

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Find out more about We'll Go Machete on Facebook, Last.FM, and Home Base.

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