If you were looking for a short, easy way to describe "Yellow Machine Gun," the phrase, "Japanese all-girl lite death metal band," might suffice. To be fair, they do try to mix it up a bit, blending in punk and even classic, Black Sabbath-metal influences. Unfortunately, the result, a disc called "Spot Remover" deserves more credit for the effort than for the music itself.

Bassist/vocalist Kaori Okumura employs two basic voices on the album. Most often, she can be heard in a metal punk rant mode, screeching out indecipherable lyrics in an attempt to (maybe) approximate the rap metal singing style ruling US airwaves these days. On "Spot Remover," tracks featuring this style tend to be backed up by a thrashy soundtrack, kind of an amateurish early Metallica sound.

On other tracks, including the album opener, "Again," she tries out a death metal growl that nearly succeeds despite itself. Through the growl, you can hear the fact that she's a woman and the fact that she has an Asian accent which is usually a bad sign in terms of effectiveness of a death metal growl. Somehow, it manages to steer clear of annoying and, at times, comes across very effectively.

The best songs on "Spot Remover" combine the Cookie Monster growl with classic metal riffage from guitarist Kyoko Moriya. "Iron Woman," with its "Alice in Chains"-like main riff, offers a welcome change of pace from the unfocused death/punk style that marks most of the songs.

Saving the best for last, "Eat Fat Hat," closes the album with an alternating mix of classic metal and death punk. Okumura pulls out a passably normal singing voice for the old school sections, before descending into her rap metal mode. That song pretty much sums up the various influences on "Yellow Submarine." Ending with a grinding, extended homage to Black Sabbath, the track closes out "Spot Remover" with one of its unfortunately few bright spots.