Coma Beach – “Extreme Masochist”

Coma Beach – “Extreme Masochist” – Single Review

Fuuuuuuuuuuuck.  These punks again?

I’ve already given this band my stamp of approval, haven’t I?  So like…go forth and conquer or do whatever it is that punks do…go take over a mall, or read some Nietzsche…why y’all makin’ me work?

Meh.  ”Life is pain,” as Coma Beach will point out to you during this fourth single that comes from a record that came out back in the mid-90s.  None of us get outta living unscathed, so I suppose it’s only fair that instead of having a day off I should write more words about music instead.  I’ll admit, even when I have to do my damn job, it’s pretty cushy…it’s not like I’m breaking rocks or laying down tile for a living.  The worst thing I can complain about is that it’s hard to just sit at a desk and type in the middle of summer when the heat is relentlessly awful…but like…for real…boo fuckin’ hoo.  I don’t even feel sorry for me, so believe me when I tell you, I’m definitely not really expecting any of you out there to either.

Anyhow.  Coma Beach.  I do think there’s a reason to question what all the fuss is for now about an album that was made a staggering thirty years ago back in 1995 – but that’s a question that’s well above my pay grade.  I don’t make the rules, I just listen to the music as it comes my way.  Maybe if I had been more on the ball when I was fifteen I would have been writing about The Scapegoat’s Agony by Coma Beach instead of doing whatever I was wasting my time doing way back then.  Look…you get the point – it’s been a long freakin’ time since their album came out, but as I have said so many times on these pages of ours, unless you’re convinced the whole world has heard your music, keep pushing it out there.  So here we are.  Obviously there’s an element of looking backwards and a giant gap in the resume that needs explaining that I’m probably not as excited about, but the music they make sounds good.  I’m always about moving onto the next thing, whatever it may be…like…I really can’t imagine talking about anything I did thirty years ago – I’d be way too busy doing whatever it was I was doing in the present.  Maybe that’ll change later on down the road, I really don’t know.  Should Coma Beach still be as excited about The Scapegoat’s Agony thirty years after the fact?  Why the fuck not?  Maybe if I did something half as cool as they’ve done I’d be more inclined to think I’d wanna keep talking about it in thirty years.

I’m as amazed as ever at the inspiration behind the song and the thought that Coma Beach puts into their material.  According to my notes here, “Extreme Masochist” is about how “the unnamed antihero experiences emotional catharsis by facing head-on the painful and torturous reality of the human condition” – and I’m like…but is it though?  Where’s the cathartic part expressed in the lyricism?  Am I missing it?  I’m not saying everything has to be translated literally, but I am also saying that saying a song is about something can often be different from it being actually about something, you feel me?  I mean – listen to it for yourself and take the Pepsi challenge y’all…are YOU getting a feeling of catharsis coming from the lyrics of “Extreme Masochist?”  Lead-singer B. Kafka seems pretty content to sing about the brutalism of life as opposed to finding that peaceful space to exist…but hey, maybe that’s the tie-in as to what it’s like to be an “Extreme Masochist” – maybe a lifetime of pain would feel good to a person that would describe themselves like that.  I’m just a simple man, Jenny…I honestly have no fucking idea.  It would certainly make sense for a band of punks to deliver a sarcastic take on what things are about compared to the grim reality of what they’re really like…maybe there’s no real catharsis at all other than what can be found inside chaos.  Don’t they always say that the eye of a hurricane is actually the calmest part of it all?  And they always say that like there’s a good part of a hurricane to be trapped within.

I…hmm…I like this tune well enough…it has that live-wire Fear-like, no-holds-barred type of performance at the core of it all.  The band sounds like they’ve got a collective case of rabies y’all…but like, in a good way?  I ain’t gonna lie, it’s still “Jesus’ Tears” that probably made the biggest impact on me personally when it comes to the catalog of tunes from Coma Beach, but I don’t have any substantial objections to this particular song.  I mean…you’ve gotta assume the band itself knows the power of “Jesus’ Tears” right?  There’s a reason that song goes out first before the rest do.  “Nothing Right” was decent, and “Another Song” delivered what its title promised…so…yeah…I guess I’d say I’d rank “Extreme Masochist” either second or third in the span of the four singles I’ve heard from this Punk band based outta Germany so far.  Where I feel like “Extreme Masochist” gets a little tougher to judge is that it feels like it kind of possesses a few less standout elements.  Ultimately, I’d tell ya that the short-ass guitar solo from Captain A. Fear is probably my favorite part of the song, but I think the main bulk of the weight is actually carried by Kafka and drummer M. Lecter on this particular track.  This time around it feels much more like an exercise in consistency, in which case I refer you back to my opening comments – I already gave this band my stamp of approval, and I stand by the things I’ve said.

Let’s be real here though – Kafka goes all-in, and I’m always stoked to hear someone give the full 100%.  I love how the band ramps things up continuously to the point where this whole song basically combusts into the ether in a giant explosion at the end – that’s cool too.  Material-wise, it’s well-played by the band and I feel like the chorus has the kind of hooks most listeners will remember as well.  The verses are where the majority of interesting words and imagery come into play, but it’s a much less memorable part of the song and kind of gets overshadowed by how memorable the chorus of this song really is.  So…yeah…I mean…I think Kafka deserves a massive amount of credit for the reasons why we’d tune into this track…I can’t get enough of the guy’s commitment to his performance on this song, and it makes all the difference when we’re talking about reasons to return to “Extreme Masochist” for another round.  As for the rest of Coma Beach…like I’ve been tellin’ ya, they’re really good at what they do.  Or…what they did back in 1995?  You get the idea.  They execute with confidence, and they pull no punches when it comes time to record.  Somehow they’re able to wrangle a vicious live sound onto a record, and if you ask anyone that’s tried to do that, you’ll know it ain’t easy.  Credit where credit is due, Coma Beach is a tight example of fierce Punk that is played with purpose, and that remains true on “Extreme Masochist.”

Find out more about Coma Beach from their official TikTok channel:  https://www.tiktok.com/@coma.beach

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