Return of the Fabulous Metal Bozo Clowns

Even if you don’t like the band’s repertoire, you’ve got to give them some credit for infusing the metal roster with a huge doze of humour… just laughing at the silly hilarious lyrics should do the trick for many. On the music front things were pretty intense on the debut, the guys throwing thrash, hardcore, grind, and punk in equal measure, covering everyone and everything along the way, from Motorhead to Kim Wilde.

That’s the spirit, keep things unpredictable, keep the audience on the edge of their seats the entire time… don’t let complacency sneak through. And never take yourself, the music carnival, and the entire joke called life seriously… not even for a split second. With this light-hearted frame of mind, the guys are back with the album reviewed here, the fabulous bozo clowns lined-up for another comical display of over-the-top musical diversity.

Brace yourselves initially for an eventful near-tech-thrash listening experience that is the title-track, a thrilling least predictable ride spearheaded by the staple semi-shouty/semi-declamatory vocals. A surreal mind-fucker this one, the band probably winking at the more demanding prog/tech-thrash wave that rose at the start of the 90’s… but only this once as before you know it the fiesta turns into a colourful punk/hardcore jump-around (“Jaggered Wedge”, “Drunk In Charge Of An Ugly Face“), the thrash/crossover insistency of “Paranoid Polaroid” ornate by bouts of infectious melodic hooks, the more openly aggressive cuts (“Enter Mr. Formica (Icky Ficky, Part II)”) also belonging to the hardcore arena. More purely thrashing extremities (“Urban Surfer 125”) arrive later, the headbanging factor definitely high, but not towards the end where the listener will bump into the heavy doom-laden “King of the Pharaohs”, a surprising but pretty effective hypnotic stroll, the seismic gravity of this tree-tumbler cancelled by the frolic punky goofiness of “Illinois Enema Bandit” and the recreational balladic appeal of “Fookin' Moo Vit”.

One may wish the more contrived aesthetics from the beginning to have been given another read, but save for the cool hectic funk-thrasher “Feetcleaner” and bits and pieces from the steady mid-paced shredder “Lawnmowers ror Heroes, Comics ror Zeros” nothing really technical goes on, the band faithful to their dominant larger-than-life approach, throwing anything they deem playable into the pot. It’s nearly an hour-long journey, with whole 22 pieces featured; one can’t get bored although he/she would by no means savour every twist and turn here. It’s a wild not very coherent entertainment that seldom truly annoys, the comic factor in the lyrics very high as usual, compensating for the not very congruent musical combinations the latter recalling various acts from the thrash/crossover spectre like D.R.I., The Accused, Suicidal Tendencies, Ludichrist…

the band quickly followed up with “Billy”, the new and last bozo clown, a merry uplifting slab of punk and crossover, above all, not much thrash to be come across, unpretentious feelgood stuff that could be viewed a legitimate precursor to the new punk wave (Green Day, Green Jelly, The Offspring, Rancid, Bad Religion, etc.) which sprung up very shortly after. The guys had brought their biggest hit, Kim Wilde's “Kids in America”, back with slight modifications, butchering Jimmy Hendrix’s “Purple Haze” disrespectfully at the end as a farewell gesture. A bit soft this last clown, not very reverential towards the old dogs either… but you can’t expect a semblance of decency from this bunch who started fucking Christmas the moment they reformed a few years back… regardless, their next circus, be it in the Mid or the Highlands, will be sold out before you have the time to utter “deth”. Mark my words.

This is a fun little album and so very diverse. The first half of the opening track is a little boring and usually just gets a quick fastfoward from me, but after that it's just a fun, thrashing, good time. There is rarely a dull moment on this album..once you hear a song and think it's going to suck, BOOM! All of a sudden something catchy flies out of nowhere and gets you hooked again. The vocals are just perfect and I love the hell out of them for this album. The coarse, stereotypical British-ness of just fits the music so perfectly.

I can honestly say this is one of my favorite crossover albums mainly because it's a good definition of crossover. The thrashing riffs of thrash and the vocals and lyrical style of hardcore punk.

I highly recommend this album for anyone who likes crossover and/or likes to have a good ol' alcohol fueled time.

Choice tracks: All them are good except the first of the opening track, but I personally find myself listening to Crazy Horses the most.

Throwaway tracks: Be Scene Not Heard and Egg Sandwich. These tracks are fillers and totally not needed.