"This record is relentless - every track seems to want to come bursting through the speakers, grab you by the ears and shake vigorously. It's almost impossible to believe that two guys could make that much snarling angry music on a disc that only lasts a half an hour or so. Californian musicians are stereotypically laid back, but don't forget Frank Zappa, Captain Beefheart, and Henry Rollins came from there as well.
     The playing is always brutally aggressive, but for a collection of very short punk songs, there is a simply astonishing landscape of musical variety here - tempo variations, sonic texture, breaks and fills in places they've never been encountered before. These 90-second blowouts have more intricacies than a lot of songs three times their length. Alex Yeung has digested a variety of guitar styles and spews them back out in a vitriolic synthesis - at times his playing reminds one of Tony Iommi, at others Mick Jones, and the list could go on for quite a while. The point here is that he's managed to amalgamate all of these into a style uniquely his own: concise, powerful, skilled, and, from the sound of things, pretty pissed off. One of the only songs that has lyrics I can understand, not speaking any Chinese, is "$8 Sandwich", which spells out very plainly what the rest of the album states musically, and what has been the central tenet of punk rock from the beginning - pretty much all the music that sells a lot sucks. Say Bok Gwai rocks!" -Reviewed by Andy Gesner president of HIP Video Promo 06/04 HIP Video Promo

Say Bok Gwai, Saturday at 12 Galaxies:
This is why Noise Pop exists. This band was either one of the festival's greatest experiences, or a hilarious joke. Say Bok Gwai is singer-guitar shredder Alex Yeung and drummer Andre Custodio doing hardcore metal in screaming Cantonese while blazing scales up and down like Kirk Hammett on acid. That these two guys meant it, and were kind of artsy, is ample evidence that they mean to be taken seriously. But the real beauty of these guys was when they bring it way down, with Yeung making random noise while Custodio takes over the remains of the worn-down, beat-up melody on drums.
(TH) Contra Costa Times 04/05

"Ok, for the first time I have nothing to say, but I can't stop listening to this. Can't quite understand what's going on...Try to imagine dual vocals being done, one English the other Japanese, while thrash hardcore-ish guitar lines are ripped apart in the background. This has to be one of the most absurd albums to be put out in some time, this is true punkrock at it's fullest." 4 beer rating -Reviewed by: Godawfulcommiepigfuckingbastards 06/04 Absolutmetal.com

 

 

It seems to become accepted when hardcore or punk isn’t sung in English for a change. We used to have a ton of great South American bands singing in either Spanish or Portuguese. But just in a short while I have heard German, Hungarian, Bulgarian and Swedish sung hardcore. I know it already existed but more bands dare to do so. It gains intensity if you’d ask me. Say Bok Gwai is as intense as it might get. Sung in Cantonese these San Francisco based guys thrash things up. Song after song they go for the ultimate madness. Fast and relentless. Too bad the lyrics aren’t included but from what I gathered they touch socio-political topics with a sense of irony looked upon from a Chinese American background. I only wonder why there are so many titles with “white demon”. Intriguing. And to finish in a Say Bok Gwai statement. “Say Bok Gwai, We rock, Say Bok Gwai, You suck”. - Reviewed by: Martijn Welzen 08/04 Inside Knowledge