ALBUM REVIEW: Blind Illusion – Wrath Of The Gods


 

Part of San Francisco’s famous Bay Area thrash scene, Blind Illusion may have only produced one full-length studio album during their initial eleven-year existence but that record, The Sane Asylum (Combat Records) still remains an undisputed classic of its time. Not only famous for adding more technicality, diversity, and flavour to a scene that ran predominantly on speed and aggression, Blind Illusion also ended up being responsible for the creation of alternative funk metal act Primus, the band at the time featuring former Possessed guitarist Larry LaLonde and batshit bass wizard Les Claypool.

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Primus Debut New Song – “The Seven”


Primus has just revealed that they will be releasing their new album, The Desaturating Seven, on September 29th via ATO. Continue reading


Rob Zombie – The Electric Warlock Acid Witch Satanic Orgy Celebration Dispenser


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Rather unsurprisingly, Rob Zombie records are much like Rob Zombie films. You either like them or you don’t. His films are nightmarish, brutal gore-soaked rides featuring masked or grease-painted trailer trash homicidal maniacs, old B-movie references (and actors), a marvelously excessive use of the word “motherfucker”, and of course, Sheri Moon Zombie. His albums are almost identical except possibly for more gasoline guzzling, psychoholic undead werewolf go-go dancers.

So, if you’re reading this review then there’s a good chance you already have more than a reasonable idea of what’s waiting for you even before you start listening. All you really want to do now is read about how fucked up it is and how much you’re going to like it.

The preposterously titled The Electric Warlock Acid Witch Satanic Orgy Celebration Dispenser (Zodiac Swan) begins with ‘The Last of the Demons Defeated’, a short intro featuring the voice of infamous occultist Aleister Crowley. The first proper song, ‘Satanic Cyanide! The Killer Rocks On!’, is a typically

bombastic assault, featuring quotes from leader of the Texas Cornerstone “Megachurch”, Pastor John Hagee (amusingly sped up so he sounds like some kind of loopy religious Minion) and author Steven Jacobson speaking about mind control.

‘The Life and Times of a Teenage Rock God’ begins slowly with keyboard effects acting like the soundtrack to a mad scientist’s laboratory, but soon hits you with a driving beat and an Alice Cooper vibe. As a bit of an unusual departure, RZ releases his inner Les Claypool with ‘Everybody’s Fucking in a UFO’. If you haven’t already heard it, just imagine ‘Winona’s Big Brown Beaver’ by Primus, but with a crunching riff, more profanity, and huge spurts of green alien jizz.

 

‘A Hearse That Overturns With the Coffin Bursting Open’ is a an acoustic interlude that lasts only a little longer than it takes to say the title. This is followed by ‘The Hideous Exhibitions of a Dedicated Gore Whore’ which includes a Vox organ and a creepy audio sample featuring Charles Manson family member Leslie Van Houten (taken from the same interview, incidentally, that White Zombie used for ‘Real Solution #9’).

‘Medication For the Melancholy’ is a fast and furious affair, the obligatory featured audio sample coming this time from Pam Grier blaxploitation flick, Coffy. ‘In The Age of the Consecrated Vampire We All Get High’ (come on, Rob. Really?) is a thunderously good signature Zombie tune that doesn’t sound a million miles away from long-time fan favourite, ‘Superbeast’, and ‘Super-Doom Hex-Gloom Part One’ is another instrumental interlude, but unfortunately doesn’t really do anything that interesting.

Rob Zombie, by Melina D Photography

Rob Zombie, by Melina D Photography

‘In The Bone Pile’ comes with bags of attitude and a surprisingly short title, while ‘Get Your Boots On! That’s The End of Rock and Roll” is absurdly catchy with its “Gabba Gabba Hey, Be-Bop-A-Lula” chorus, and album closer ‘Wurdalak’ is a slow, grinding, atmospheric tribute to Boris Karloff in the 1963 Mario Bava horror film “Black Sabbath”.

Zombie has referred to his new album (there’s no way I’m writing that title out again) as “seriously our heaviest most fucked up musical monster to date”, and although it’s clearly a beast, it’s not dramatically heavier than his last couple of releases. It’s also a relatively short album, coming in at only just over thirty minutes in length. But the truth is that it doesn’t have to be heavy as hell or longer than the average album to make an impression. Each song is a short, sharp jab of (sick) bubblegum Americana, a swift, strikingly confident punch in the face that knocks you down but makes you want to get straight back up to take more of its addictive abuse.

8.0/10

GARY ALCOCK

 

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Primus (with The Fungi Ensemble) – Primus And The Chocolate Factory


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With a career spanning three decades and a reputation as one of our world’s most loved and respected bands of a near cult status, Primus are one of our world’s leading lights in music that is, to put it lightly, unconventional and unpredictable. Even by their standards however, the proposition Primus And The Chocolate Factory (ATO Records) (the reunion of original members Claypool, Lalonde and Alexander) is a difficult one to fathom.

Both a tribute and a reimagining to the songs of 1971’s musical classic Willy Wonka And The Chocolate Factory; made famous by Gene Wilder’s untouchable performance as the eccentric and somewhat sinister factory owner, this really unearths and highlights the film/books’ menacing undertones. Introduction track “Hello Wonkites” encapsulates the tone with its playful, cartoon like sound but with a twisted atmosphere.

Their take on ‘Pure Imagination’ has to be the albums highlight, taking the uplifting and joyous original and turning it into the kind of madness that Frank Zappa would be proud of. Yet there are traits present that stay faithful to the film soundtrack; notably the several “Oompa” segments which maintain the original patronising appeal, only with Claypool’s fat bass sound on top of it.

By heightening the dark, ominous undercurrent of a film that many of us would have grown up with this could be mistaken for the biggest childhood ruining event since a certain Rolf Harris, but this is performed with an affection for the tale, and the detail within is a testament to this. As unhinged as it is catchy, this should strike a note with both those who grew up with the film and those who are drawn to music of the quirky and bewildering variety. Surely the sonic equivalent of sitting down to enjoy the movie with a couple of LSD pills.

8.0/10

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CHRIS TIPPELL


Primus/Les Claypool Book Due Out In September


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Primus, Over the Electric Grapevine: Insight into Primus and the World of Les Claypool will be released via Akashic Books on September 16, 2014. Authored by journalist Greg Prato, he curated an oral history of all things Primus, and includes a 16 page full color photo insert with rare and never before seen images, and compiled 50 all new interviews with such names as Tim Alexander, Trey Anastasio (Phish), Matthew Bellamy (Muse), Les Claypool, Stewart Copeland (The Police), Chuck D (Public Enemy), Kirk Hammett (Metallica), Larry LaLonde, Geddy Lee (Rush), Mickey Melchiondo (Ween), Tom Morello (Rage Against the Machine), Chad Smith (Red Hot Chili Peppers), Matt Stone (South Park), Tom Waits, and many others.

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Primus To Release Willy Wonka Themed Album, Fall Tour


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Primus will be releasing Primus and The Chocolate Factory with the Fungi Ensemble via ATO Records on October 21st, with a two set “evening with” show beginning October 22nd at the Tower Theater in Philadelphia, PA.

 

This record marks the first full length release featuring the classic lineup of Les Claypool (bass/vocals), Larry Lalonde (guitars) and Tim “Herb” Alexander (drums) since 1995. Alexander last played with Primus in 2008.

 

As previously announced Tim Alexander recovering from open heart surgery and should not miss the fall tour.

 

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The band’s eighth studio album is a tribute to the 1971 musical Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory.

 

Primus Tour Dates:

Oct 22: Tower Theatre – Upper Darby, PA
Oct 24: Palace Theatre – Albany, NY
Oct 25: Orpheum Theatre – Boston, MA
Oct 26: Flynn Center for Performing Arts – Burlington, VT
Oct 28: Palace Theater – Waterbury, CT
Oct 29: Hippodrome – Baltimore, MD
Oct 31: Beacon Theatre – New York, NY
Nov 01: State Theatre – New Brunswick, NJ
Nov 02: Main Street Armory – Rochester, NY
Nov 03: The Fillmore Detroit – Detroit, MI
Nov 05: Peabody Opera House – St. Louis, MO
Nov 07: Taft Theatre – Cincinnati, OH
Nov 08: Tabernacle – Atlanta, GA
Nov 09: Hard Rock Live – Orlando, FL
Nov 11: The Fillmore Miami Beach at The Jackie Gleason Theater – Miami Beach, FL
Nov 12: Ruth Eckerd Hall – Clearwater, FL
Nov 14: Hard Rock Hotel & Casino – Biloxi, MS
Nov 15: ACL live at the Moody Theater – Austin, TX
Nov 16: The Majestic Theatre – Dallas, TX
Nov 17: Majestic Theatre – San Antonio, TX
Nov 19: Orpheum Theatre Phoenix – Phoenix, AZ
Nov 21: Orpheum Theatre LA – Los Angeles, CA

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