UMUR "In This Life" is the second full-length studio album by US, California based thrash/funk metal act Mordred. The album was released through Noise Records February 1991. It´s the successor to "Fool's Game" from 1989 and features one lineup change since the debut album as guitarist J. Taffer has been replaced by James Sanguinetti.

Mordred continue the rather distinct sounding funk/alternative metal tinged thrash metal style of the debut album, but add even more funky slap bass parts, talking/rapping type vocals, funky beats, and scratch/turntable sounds to their music. There are still thrash metal guitar riffs and rhythms featured on the album, but they aren´t always a dominant part of the band´s sound. One of the greatest assets of the music are the many well played, powerful, and melodic guitar solos. They are in a similar style to what Rocky George produced on contemporary releases by Suicidal Tendencies. The most alternative output by the latter mentioned is actually a valid reference point when describing the music on "In This Life" as well as the Infectious Grooves side-project.

"In This Life" features a decent sounding production, and the musicianship is also strong, although lead vocalist Scott Holderby is probably a bit of an aquired taste. He doesn´t often sing raw but instead delivers a vocal style which sounds like a combination of Mike Muir (Suicidal Tendencies) and early Mike Patton (Faith No More), but without possessing as distinct sounding a voice or as powerful a delivery as any of those two. A 3 star (60%) rating is warranted.

Unitron While Faith No More gets the respect they deserve for being one of the most groundbreaking bands in metal, unfortunately the albums before Mike Patton joined are often forgotten in that. Introduce Yourself does just what the title says, and Faith No More introduces themselves as a band like no other and one that couldn't care less about fictional genre boundaries and just wanted to combine everything they liked into an incredible unique sound.

This is basically nu metal for the 80's. Funky bass, synthscapes right out of Kraftwerk, thrash metal riffs, post-punk/new wave melodies, rapping, and whatever else they could throw in there. Original vocalist Chuck Mosley is both underrated and underestimated, unfairly compared to Mike Patton. Both are great vocalists but in very different ways, Mosley is like the sound of the album if it was a person. He's too much of a beatnik for the punks, he's too thrash for the beatniks, he's too new wave for the thrashers, he's just who he is. No song better exemplifies this than Death March, with his beatnik meets skater rambling. Also, anyone wanting proof that Faith No More would've continued experimenting and expanding their influences even if Patton never joined, just check out Mosley's post-FNM band Cement.

Everything on the album sounds so gigantic, and combined it's just ethereal. Jim Martin's meaty riffs hit so damn hard, every slap and pop of Billy Gould's bass is felt, Mike Bordin's drums are hammers on an anvil, and it's all wrapped up in Roddy Bottum's grandiose synths which might be the most underrated part of Faith No More's sound. It creates an atmosphere like no other metal album at the time.

We Care a Lot!

siLLy puPPy INFECTIOUS GROOVES was pretty much the side project of Suicidal Tendencies lead singer Mike Muir where he could unleash his sense of humor in a funk metal context. The band started out as a quintet with Muir on vocals, fellow Suicidal Tendencies and future Metallica bassist Robert Trujillo, ST guitarist Dean Pleasants, Excel guitarist Adam Siegel and Jane’s Addiction drummer Stephen Perkins. This band was something of a metal supergroup if you will.

The band released its debut “The Plague That Makes Your Booty Move… It’s The Infectious Grooves” and pretty much bridged the gap between the funk rock of the Red Hot Chili Peppers and the crossover thrash of Suicidal Tendencies. The album was amazingly good with a Mr Bungle styled nonchalance that mixed humor, novelty and funk rock with thrash metal. The band was always a side project so was never taken seriously by many but for my tastes i consider that debut album a true masterpiece of innovation and actually prefer it to Suicidal! Oh blasphemy!!!

After “The Plague” made its splash, INFECTIOUS GROOVES sort of took a risk by taking the novelty to the next level and two years later released what is considered the second album SARSIPPIUS’ ARK which saw the departure of Perkins on drums and replaced by John Freese of the lesser known band The Vandals. While considered an official album, this second offering feels more like an EP of flotsam of jetsam including not up to snuff material that was rejected from the debut, cover songs, live tracks from the first album and a remix of “Infectious Grooves.”

All things considered it’s not surprising that this one is a major step down from the amazingly excellent debut album. The originals aren’t as strong as the material that preceded, the whole SARSIPPIUS spoken word skits had grown a little stale and the covers aren’t that interesting. Add to that the fact that the live tracks showcase a band that doesn’t deviate from the studio recordings and Mike Muir clearly couldn’t sing as well live as in the studio. All of these factors conspired to make a rather inferior second offering which is why i like to think of this as an EP as opposed to a bonafide album simply because it sounds like a release of flotsam and jetsam.

While they were unofficial members, the debut album included three guest musicians that added extra guitar parts and keyboards. That album was much fuller in sound with an incredible breadth of creativity but this second album sounds a bit forced actually and is a bit of an anomaly between the strength of the debut and the following “Groove Family Cyco.” Personally i think the whole SARSIPPIUS Sulemenagic Jackson III shtick was OK for the debut but at this point was pretty stale since the whole lizard man sounding like a conceited African American with a George Clinton fetish was pretty silly actually.

When all is said and done there is nothing on this album that is better or equal to the debut but that doesn’t mean it’s a total dud. The musicianship is as tight as ever and a few stand out tracks like “Don’t Stop Spread The Jam” and “Three Headed Mind Pollution” are really nice funk metal tracks. Add to that list the funky junky “These Freaks Are Here To Party.” The problem with this album is that the Led Zeppelin and David Bowie covers are OK but nothing special and some of the tracks are fairly lame like “Savor Da Flavor” and “Slo-Motion Slam.” The highlight of the album is that SARSIPPIUS who sort of acted like Lucy on “I Love Lucy” always trying to get in the show, finally get to debut his single “Spreck!” A decent track and showcases in full regalia how INFECTIOUS GROOVES was worshipping the altar of classic Parliament and Funkadelic.

An OK release if you really dig this band as i do but the least interesting of the 90s releases fo sho. Add to that the mediocrity of the live performances, the stupid spoken word skits and the substandard originals and this one just isn’t as funkiliscous as the predecessor. Still though it’s a fun enough album if you suppress your inner critique and just let your booty shake as intended. The remix of the track “Infectious Grooves” which is sort of a combo of the original with the David Bowie song “Fame” is actually pretty rad. All in all this isn’t my favorite INFECTIOUS GROOVES release but still a decent “extras” compilation if you should consider it as such.

SilentScream213 Primus help launch a new decade of metal with a release going against a lot of what 80’s metal was. Frizzle Fry was not exactly a parody album, but it combined silly and nonsensical themes, goofy vocals, and technical prowess.

Straight from your first glimpse of the cover, Frizzle Fry looks like an absolute joke. What you find inside is only halfway so, because in the songwriting and ability department, Primus take themselves very seriously. It’s no secret that it’d take a real expert to not only play, but come up with this stuff. There’s Math Rock and Experimental influence all over this thing. However, one thing Primus is not quite good at is writing a good riff, or a good guitar solo, or really anything musically memorable. The songs do their thing, dance around chaotically with some impressive technique and then leave nothing to remember them by.

The vocals, lyrics, and themes are a big weakness here for me. It’s all just too silly, never clever enough to make me laugh but annoying enough to take away from the music. The vocal style doesn’t make use of any nice hooks or melodies either, further instigating the issue of songs having no memorably strong moments.

SilentScream213 Faith No More make a bit of a leap on this one. They keep their weirdo funky Alt Metal sound and knack for variety and experimentation, and slap a heavy dose of consistency on top. Before, Faith No More produced about as many good songs as total duds in their search for a sound. Here they continue changing things up, but the quality remains very good across the entire album. The keys do a fantastic job of adding some grandeur to the otherwise very generic instrumentation. The vocals are hit or miss, not really my thing, but pretty unique at the time and employ a wide variety of techniques. Overall a great improvement without straying from their roots.