siLLy puPPy
The year 2020 has been not only a year of strange events on a global scale but in the world of music it has produced some unexpected returns from artists who have been absent from the scene for decades. Bands like Cirith Ungol, Psychotic Walz and Asuk Maboul have been resurrected from a suspended cryogenic state but perhaps the band i least expected to be making a comeback has to be the inimitable one of a kind act MR BUNGLE.
When i discover an all time favorite band planning a release some 20 years after they officially called it quits i always have to slap my head with a sigh thinking DON’T DO IT! I want my favorite bands who have gone down as legends to remain pure and pristine as far as quality material goes and MR BUNGLE with its three eccentric screwball concoctions released in the 90s proved to be some of the most original musical expressions ever laid down in the recording studio.
But then again during that reign in the underground MR BUNGLE was always about throwing curve balls and 21 years after the release of their last album “California,” the boyz from Eureka, California have done it again! Unfortunately we don’t get an album that incorporates every musical genre ever created gleefully mixed together in the most defiant and unorthodox manners.
Instead we get a re-recording of the band’s very first demo released in 1986 titled THE RAGING WRATH OF THE EASTER BUNNY only this 2020 version adds a few tracks and for some reason jettisons the track “Evil Satan.” Oh, and this one also officially adds the word DEMO to the title.
MR BUNGLE has always pretty much been the magic triumvirate mojo of vocalist Mike Patton, guitarist Trey Spruance and bassist Trevor Dunn with other members recruited for whatever sounds were required for the job.
Unlike BUNGLE’s avant-garde display of a musical encyclopedia, EASTER BUNNY goes back to the band’s earliest years as a crossover thrash band with a bit of death metal and hardcore punk mixed into the overall metal therefore you can forgot about Arabic musical scales, funk, ska, doowop, surf rock, Indonesia monkey chants or any of the gazillion musical ideas mined for the three album procession.
This is a metal album from beginning to end. Along for the ride this time are Scott Ian from Anthrax as the rhythm guitarist and Slayer drummer Dave Lombardo making this DEMO release sound like a very professional sounding album but i wonder why original BUNGLE drummer Jed Watts who appeared on the original EASTER BUNNY DEMO wasn’t asked to rekindle the early years in this reunion moment.
After finally hearing this updated DEMO turned slickly produced album in the year 2020, what are we to think? Are we happy to have the BUNGLERs in a bonafide reunion of sorts or are we pissed that all that amazing talent is wasted on a somewhat average but excellently performed thrash metal album?
Well the answer to that is somewhere in between. Given the MR BUNGLE canon of the 90s the band never really had the chance to be, well, just a metal band as these guys were always trying to cram one more musical idea into the mix until it morphed into a gargantuan chimera that evolved into something completely different.
On this EASTER BUNNY update (ironically released in time for Halloween!), the boyz from Eureka just get to take off their magic backpacks filled with every musical flavor this side of the sun and simply crank out some seriously manic, raw, noisy, aggressive and HEAVY metal music albums.
This updated DEMO features all of the original eight tracks of the 1985 demo only for some mysterious reason “Evil Satan” was nixed. The new release has four new tracks including “Glutton For Punishment,” “Mathematics,” “Eracist” and “Loss For Words,” as well as the track “"Hypocrites / Habla Español O Muere” which includes the original track and cleverly incorporates Ian Scott’s irreverent crossover thrash band’s material from Stormtroopers of Death.
Yeah, there are definitely some BUNGLE-isms tucked into the mix but for the most part THE RAGING WRATH OF THE EASTER BUNNY DEMO is a rampaging and galloping thrash metal album displaying Patton’s vocal antics and allows Spruance to actually throw out some lead guitar here and there.
To be honest this wasn’t i wanted in a new MR BUNGLE album. In fact i wasn’t even wanting a new album after all this time. While this little gimmick is an excellently performed aggressive assault on the sense made all the more palatable by the drumming prowess of Lombardo and the inclusion of Scott Ian, what we all really want is whatever was supposed to emerge after “California!”
Hopefully this is simply a little side note that is getting the band back into shape after a long absence from the scene but now that you have gotten this out of your system, guys, PLEASE do not feel the need to re-record the other three demos as well! We want 90s MR BUNGLE with all that genre bending insanity!
Despite it all though i have to admit that this is an excellent slice of hardcore thrash metal that delivers the required aggressiveness for that classic thrash attack but at an hour’s playing time it perhaps could’ve been trimmed down just a wee bit. Whatever! MR BUNGLE is back! Yeah 2020 truly is the weirdest year ever and this only adds to the surreality.