The Goons of Doom – Bikey Zomby (CD)

The Goons of Doom – Bikey Zomby / 2005 Volcom / 5 Tracks / http://www.purevolume.com/goonsofdoom / http://www.volcoment.com / Reviewed 13 September 2005

It makes tremendous sense that Ozzie Wright, a professional surfer, would create The Goons of Doom, who start out their “Bikey Zomby” with the surf-influenced “She Wore Rat Skin Boots”. The amount of Dick Dale-esque riffs tends to almost overwhelm listeners, but luckily enough are couched behind some funky guitar lines. The second track on “Bikey Zomby” (Blood On The Streets) is more of a stylistic continuation of “Rat Skin Boots”, but this slight amount of ennui is largely diminished by the presence of the 77-punk riffs (and Rancid-like vocals) of “Napalm”. While a full length is coming out in the near future, one of the most major problems with “Bikey Zomby” is just that there is not much in the way of diver music to chew on. Sure, the disc may end on “Long Haircut”, a track in which Ozzie really takes on an Iggy Pop-type of vocals but the rest of the tracks present on the EP are either too short or a repetition of the same style that had already been showcased (“Rat Skin Boots” and “Blood On The Streets” provide a perfect example of that).

To be honest, “Long Haircut” is the meat and potatoes of this disc, as the track’s extended track length really allows the band to experiment with arrangements, which are finally given enough time to evolve into something quite different from those that open the track. However odd it may seem, the dual harmonies present on the later part of “Long Haircut” simultaneously recall early Goo Goo Dolls and Bauhaus while still holding some section of the Iggy Pop style that opened the track. The fact that the band can suffer on a track that is only two and a half minutes (in “Blood On The Streets” and succeed so brilliantly on a ten-minute plus track (Long Haircut) really should be a wake-up call for this band, something that should tell them that experimentation can be their friend.

While the disc started out with a track that seemed a little too close to The Hives and The Vines, the following tracks really give The Goons of Doom a different sound from pretty much any band out currently. The full-length album (which is due out in 2006) will be interesting, as The Goons of Doom are not a band that sticks with any one style for the entirety of this EP. Whether or not the band will coalesce the sound into one or two distinct styles or continue to be diverse will really determine whether the full length will succeed.

Top Track: Long Haircut

Rating: 5.6/10