‘Llega gente con hambre, Y con niños Tambien, Meten todos en jaulas, Nunca se vuelven ver’ (Jaulas) ‘People arrive hungry, And with children too, They put them all in cages, They never see each other again’ (Cages)

Generacion Suicida (Generation Suicide) are a long-standing Los Angeles DIY punk band and Regeneracion (Regeneration) is their fifth full-length since their 2010 formation.  Originally, released by Drunken Sailor Records in 2021, the album was initially recorded in demo form and, in 2022, the band returned to the studio to re-record the songs.  Vitriol Records have now reissued this new recording with powerfully simplified cover art and a revamped track ordering.

The band fuse together a vital blend of raw street punk energy with a bleakly haunting melodicism that draws in part on death rock influences and in part on the formative sounds of early 1980s English post-punk.  The clean guitars brim with warm, gleaming tones that belie the fury that permeates the clean sung Spanish vocals, underpinned throughout by a fiercely supple rhythm section.  Stand out moments include the surging Dia Tras Dia (Day After Day), the melancholy laced Nacidos (Born), and the darkly infectious closer Violencia (Violence).

The band have long run under the banner ‘Musica del barrio, para el barrio’ (‘Music from the neighbourhood, for the neighbourhood’) and, lyrically, the album knits together a tightly interconnected story of the migrant experience spanning the inhumanity of US immigration policy (Jaulas / Cages), the pain of leaving home and family (Dime Donde Este / Tell Me Where It Is), and being confronted by a culture of police violence (Balas, Siempre Balas / Bullets, Always Bullets).  It also explores the consequences of typically dehumanising work (Dia Tras Dia) and the chilling realities of domestic abuse (Violencia).