Guillotine

Eat It or Wear It Baby (2003)

Jordan Rogowski

Guillotine carries a definite feeling of danger, a feeling of excitement and uncertainty in their music.

Loud, abrasive, dissonant guitar work, and rapid fire vocals are what this band and their album, Eat It or Wear It Baby, are all about. These seven short punk rock tunes are so full of vigor that it's hard to keep up. It's dirty, it's gritty, and that's just the way they like it. Punk rock isn't supposed to be safe and predictable, and that's not a problem that you're going to have with this record; it's everything that punk was founded on, with a little bit of garage rock thrown in there for good measure.

Billy Guillotine's unstable demeanor lends itself extremely well to these short and effective punk rock tunes, and the razor sharp guitar work of Spencer Von Apple Fritta is the perfect compliment. While this does go back to the roots of punk, they're not content with that three-chord schtick, and "Sour" will show exactly why not. The raging guitar solo towards the end of the song is sure to light a fire under the ass of anyone listening, and the title track just continues that momentum in the 5 spot. After some heavily distorted riffs and a building drum roll, Tommy Guillotine's manic vocals come back in over the top of those buzzsaw guitars, as he motors his way through the two-minute track.

"Commotion" is worth the price of admission alone, as the vocals reach an absolutely frenzied pace, and the rest of the band has to play their asses off just to try and keep up. The vocal delivery is spot on, never missing a single beat, no matter how high the volume goes or how fast the pace becomes. The guitar and bass combination wail away as the vocals slow down just a bit towards the end, but there's no break to be had, as "Road to Make" ends the album in extremely fine fashion. The start-and-stop guitar work impresses, and the vocals fit so perfectly right along with it.

Guillotine put the danger back into punk rock, and it's never sounded better.