7 Year Bitch
Gato Negro

You say Seattle and immediately the grunge, Nirvana, Mudhoney, and Soundgarden come to mind.

But few spontaneously associate this city with the foxcore movement, whose cradle was the Olympia of Bikini Kill and Bratmobile. In fact, in the early '90s, there was already a thriving female punk scene in Seattle, dominated by The Gits and 7 Year Bitch. Both groups were signed to the local label C/Z Records (for which "Deep Six" was released, a compilation that officially marked the birth of grunge and included tracks from Soundgarden, Melvins, and Green River, just to name the most famous). The former had a brief life: the singer and songwriter Mia Zapata was raped and brutally murdered in '93, an event that deeply affected the life and artistic production of fellow-musicians 7 Year Bitch, who dedicated an entire album, "¡Viva Zapata!", in her memory.

"Gato Negro," the direct successor of "¡Viva Zapata!", still bears the pain experienced from Mia’s tragic disappearance, but it’s as if the girls suddenly became determined to rise up and become spokespersons for a sort of campaign against such events, which are still all too frequent in America today: about two thousand girls raped daily. Musically, the Bitches (as they loved to be called) have evolved a lot, both in instrumental technique and compositionally, compared to previous works, which were decidedly rougher and more violent. Nevertheless, "Gato Negro" is a furious, challenging album with male-bashing lyrics entirely penned by Selene Vigil, the group’s voice. Despite the themes tackled and the sound being those typical of the riot grrrls, 7 Year Bitch rejected this label; on this subject, guitarist Roisin Dunne explicitly stated in an interview that she and her group had nothing to do with riot grrrls and their radically feminist vision (thus deliberately distancing themselves from Olympia and even more so from the work of Bikini Kill).

For their major debut, 7 Year Bitch chose Atlantic and Billy Anderson as the record company and producer of another Seattle band they greatly admired: the Melvins. In fact, "Gato Negro" offers sounds that are more grunge and almost metal-like: the opener "The History Of My Future" is an excellent example. It starts with a very fast and anxious riff played in unison by guitar and bass, the drums are dry, have a pounding rhythm, and sometimes lose themselves in tribalisms. In the instrumental interlude that follows the bridge, Elizabeth Davis’s bass stands out, convulsive, fast, claustrophobic, along with a noisy guitar that almost causes panic. With a distorted voice, Selene sings about the trust a woman who has suffered sexual violence inevitably loses in men: «If you're gonna lie on top of me, don't lie to me». In the following "Crying Shame", again on the theme of rape and the shame felt consequently, they involve Valerie Agnew’s splendid drumming (one of the rare drummers who overuse the ride), a rippling and suggestive bass line, and Roisin Dunne’s guitar effects. "Disillusion" starts well with a guitar outburst and agitated drumming; then the voice comes in, as sharp as the words it utters, from Vigil. Elizabeth, for her part, gifts us with a perfectly fitting, powerful, and well-constructed bass riff. After "Disillusion", it’s the turn of "Deep In The Heart", a blues that echoes "Middle Man" from Babes In Toyland, especially for Davis’s playing style, who hones a dark initial bass groove. Roisin Dunne creates effective guitar phrases that fit perfectly with the rhythm section. The vocal melody is heartfelt, anguished, and is rendered optimally by Selene Vigil. Worth mentioning is Agnew’s drumming, truly effective and well placed. The fact that all melodies are authored by Davis means that 7 Year Bitch’s songs are quite bass-centric, as demonstrated by the excellent "The Midst", which indeed opens with a very engaging and skillful bass line. The piece is essentially a blues with foxcore openings; Vigil’s vocal interpretation is very versatile, transitioning from an almost jazz verse to an exaggeratedly shouted grunge chorus, culminating in the final despair.

One of the most valid episodes, both musically and lyrically, is "24,900 Miles Per Hour". The enigmatic title refers to the speed needed to escape Earth’s orbit. The melody and singing are particularly tense, and the anxiety they transmit is echoed in the guitar and drum outbursts. The climax of the song is reached in Selene’s final mumble: «Oh how do I hear/In this little afterthought/And my little aftershock/Behind the cheerful stare/I wake up from the nightmare/And I just grew aware/A little too late». "Whoopie Cat" is astounding, with its slightly metal guitar riffs and an especially tense verse. Valerie Agnew’s drumming work is remarkable: it surprises with the use of the ride bell, quite unusual in the foxcore domain, and becomes decisive in the tribalism of the bridge. Echoes of the Melvins begin to be heard, whose influence becomes evident in the following track, "Miss Understood", especially in Vigil’s distorted, almost growl-like singing. The group’s riffmeister, Elizabeth, invents one of the best guitar riffs in the entire foxcore and delights us with the convulsions of her bass; Valerie’s contribution on drums is, as always, commendable. "Sore Subject" is a relatively calm grunge ballad (so to speak), sung with a very hoarse and pained voice: one of the album’s salient features. Then follow two metal essays: "Rest My Head", a bit predictable, but with an engaging bridge, and the stunning "2nd Hand", with very fast bass solos. The only negative note of the album is the concluding track, "Jack", which steals the guitar riff from "Return Of The Rat" by the Wipers and slows it down, offering banal vocal melodies and an instrumental base, ultimately tedious. Definitely not up to the rest of the work.

"Gato Negro" doesn’t sound like a major-label album (the Bitches themselves claimed, who hated the idea of feeling artistically oppressed by a record label), indeed it has a persistent lo-fi feel throughout. The rating would actually be five stars because it’s one of the first foxcore records I bought and influenced me tremendously, but I try to be as objective as possible, and indeed this album is significantly inferior to Bikini Kill’s debut, to a "Fontanelle", or even to a "Spanking Machine".