EXPLOSIVE: after a disappointing major-label stint, the Suicide Machines are back - and mad as hell.

The two most obvious reasons that A Match and Some Gasoline is so, well, explosive? One, it’s the Suicide Machines’ first release on the stellar indie Side One Dummy after a four-album major-label stint that ended in commercial disappointment. Two, the veteran Detroit ska-punkers don’t like what’s going on in the Middle East, and they’re not gonna take it anymore. On the first single, "Your Silence," frontman Jason Navarro dodges the band’s audio shrapnel and chastises a generation of kids for rejecting politics in the face of war: "Your silence equals your death!" Even the sunnier ska tunes, like "Did You Ever Get a Feeling of Dread," don’t shy away from protest.

Navarro has plenty of other things to get pissed off about too, like the cops (on the skaters’ anthem "Keep It a Crime") and his personal demons (on the hardcore tantrum "Beat My Head Against the Wall"). And he takes a successful stab at storytelling on the beery sing-along "Seized Up," which follows his friends and family down the dirty streets of Detroit. The Suicide Machines have emerged re-energized from the major-label wringer.

(The Suicide Machines perform on the Vans Off the Wall Club Tour 2003 next Thursday, November 13, at Axis; call 617-262-2437.)