Gumm’s debut album, Slogan Machine, is a rejection of easy classification. It’s a record that can’t be narrowed down, that embraces the strange nuances and spiky edges rather than sanding them off, and is all the more appealing because of it. It’s a strident refusal to get caught up in the kind of callous oversimplification that breeds resentment in the modern world–and it’s one of the most impressive and inventive hardcore albums of 2023.
Formed in 2018, Gumm–vocalist Drew Waldon, bassist Philip Amos, drummer Harrison Battles, and guitarists Dylan Mikres and Trevor Lynch–have been releasing a steady stream of EPs, each one more promising than the last. Now Slogan Machine makes good on that potential with its 22-minute amalgamation of primal hardcore stomp, unhinged punk speed, and winding post-hardcore imagination. Recorded by Jarrod Gee in the band’s hometown of Chattanooga, Tennessee, the album’s eight songs are bursting with aggression, yet manage to pack in a healthy dose of tuneful surprises. Tracks like opener “No Frontier” or pummeling mid-album standouts “Free” and “Mirror” are led by razor sharp guitars that slice through the mix, while Battles and Amos’ rhythm section provides more than enough satisfying heft. Elsewhere, “Give You Back Your Youth” or the title track throw in the moments of unabashed melody that make Slogan Machine as catchy as it is cutting.
Gumm’s adventurous sound is tied together by Waldon’s agile roar and thoughtful lyrics. Slogan Machine finds the vocalist lamenting the growing culture of judgment and bad faith distortions that now seems so omnipresent in everyday life. “I feel like there’s a certain lack of self-awareness and empathy overall right now when it comes to people of differing opinions and ideals,” he explains. “The folks being the loudest generally prefer to reach for quick, easy talking points and slogans to bark at one another, rather than do the work to actually affect change.”
But despite all of the fury and frustration on Slogan Machine, there’s also an optimism buried within–a desire for something more. During the blistering conclusion of “No Frontier,” Waldon shouts “I want to feel like this world is a world worth saving,” while on “New World Grows Old,” he spits out “we can’t let them pull us apart” with equal parts vitriol and conviction, tapping into an innate connection to humanity that can’t be fully undone, in spite of the powers-that-be who seek to take advantage of all the chaos and division. “The through-line in the record is the longing I feel to bridge the gap between myself and others,” Waldon says. “The finding of, and preserving, common ground between people in a time where it feels like most folks prefer to focus on differences, and so much of discourse feels like debate.”
The album closes with “Leave Me Out,” where a pummeling wall of guitars gives way to another surprising moment of melody. The guitar fades as the group repeats “leave me out” in an almost mantra-like chant, a gentle sing-song refrain that hangs more like a question than a forceful statement. Throughout Slogan Machine, Gumm make it clear that they don’t have the answers, but that’s the point: no one does and maybe there’s some commonality to be found in the unknown.
