4 out of 5

Label: Asbestos Records / Underground Communique

Produced by: Tim Pok (mastered by)

My normal approach with a compilation record would be to break apart what it’s compiling and review those separately, then assess the value of the whole. The Suicide Machines’ On the Eve of Destruction comp makes that a bit difficult, though: this has a new mastering credit (Tim Pok) that discogs doesn’t list on the releases it brings together, and there’s a stray comment on one version of this that suggests some vocal details may have been removed. Meaning I’d not be confident that what I’m hearing is the same / similar enough to the originals.

‘Eve’ purports to represent the first two SM cassettes – The Essential Kevorkian! and Green World – and adds on rarities / singles / demos. From a collector’s perspective, and just as a fan of the band, this is awesome. Those cassettes are not going to be easy finds, and if Skank for Brains taught me anything, it’s that there was no “proto” version of the Machines: it is wild how intact their sound was from the very start, to the point that we can even trace their eventual pop and straight hardcore work to these relics from decades prior. And assuming Pok’s mastering is new (though note that I don’t think it’s not new to this edition of Eve to which I’m listening, which is from Asbestos Records / Underground Communique, as is just a reissue of the Noise Riot-released version), the clarity of this material stands alongside the Hollywood Records stuff: it is polished. Yeah, when you start to get into the alternate version material you get clipping and pieces dropping out, and the mastering favors volume, so it’s a bit harsh at the edges, but accepting that you can hear a looseness that was smoothed out on the then soon-to-come material, it seems especially shameful that this stuff was hard to get for so long, as it stands on par with the classic first couple mainline releases. In short: the group had this catchy punk ska thing down, but were cool enough in the execution for it not to be cloying.

So from a fan perspective, this is top tier, at least as far as the material.

But let’s take a step back, and suppose you’re a casual fan, or perhaps new to the group. A lot of material on the first three releases was repurposed / revitalized into Destruction By Definition, so you’re going to hear some repeats, even across this compilation. And if there is another giveaway of this being a younger edition of the band, their bag of tricks becomes notably limited as you go along the 20+ tracks: there are a handful of song formats the group tries in various ways that are easy to mix up. However, once again, the Machines’ show their hand early, as every song, even if similar to another, has at least one element that makes it stand out, and so you get to hear them working out how to boil this down into the best of the best for future albums.

Another criticism goes to the presentation, or the lack thereof. The album art (reproduced from the Noise Riot edition) is a fun collection of flyers and whatnot, but there are no liner notes on this thing to tell you the source of the tracks, and even the media copy from the various releases gets it wrong, as I think some of these songs are even from Skank for Brains, which isn’t mentioned at all. It would also be great to know where the unreleased stuff came from, or the tracks that aren’t listed as unreleased but I can’t find on any Discogs entry. I get that this stuff isn’t required to enjoy the music, but I think it enhances the experience, and gives you context.

I admittedly always hesitate when I’m diving into some collection of older / odds and sods material from a band I dig, because, almost inevitably, that stuff is going to be subpar by definition – like there’s a reason it’s left on the sidelines. ‘Eve of Destruction’ is a super fun listen, though, where even the alternate versions of tracks you know have some new hook which makes them rewarding to checkout, and the music hangs together perfectly as its own listen, guaranteeing a spot in your Suicide Machines playlist.