BAD OMEN - PASKOMEN EP REVIEW
It’s Christmastime once again, and in line with the holiday spirit, local punk legends Bad Omen have recently put out an EP called “PaskOmen” that you can download for free via the link below. Conceived out of boredom while stuck in the usual bumper-to-bumper traffic jams that plague most parts of Manila regardless of the occasion, “PaskOmen” finds the band butchering some timeless holiday-themed OPM classics as originally sung by the likes of Sharon Cuneta and Gary Valenciano – to name but a few – just because they can. Not even the Jose Mari Chan hit “Christmas in Our Hearts” gets away unscathed as Bad Omen even enlisted fellow punk scene OG Myra Ruaro (formerly of the bands Put3Ska and Brownbeat All Stars) to do a punk rendition of the song that Mr. Chan surely would find not to his own liking, but who cares about what he thinks anyway? Nothing is sacred for Bad Omen, not even Christmas itself as they merrily slog their way through each of the eight songs in their usual street-informed punk that, while not exactly breaking new ground, is enough to compete against your neighbors celebrating the holidays while drunkenly singing some shitty songs on the videoke machine that they rented out.
I just wish that Bad Omen did an entire album’s worth of Christmas tunes very much in the same vein as The Vandals’ 1996 holiday record “Oi to the World!” whose title track gained popularity after being covered by the Gwen Stefani’s former band No Doubt. But I guess even just a short and snappy eight-song Christmas EP from Bad Omen would do for now.
Raise your middle fingers high and shove them on the faces of your out-of-tune neighbors trying to sing those “birit” tunes even if they can’t by downloading Bad Omen’s “PaskOmen” EP and playing it on a loop via this link: