Give us a minute to shake our heads and make that ‘bwrbwrbwr’ sound cartoon characters make after having anvils dropped on their heads. Is this the same band that released Wild Beyond Belief? Of course it is.
Threads such as Claythanas’s purgatorial vocal style and fuzzy, psychedelic guitars connect the dots between the Virginia trio’s first and second. The difference lies in how reserved Die Screaming sounds. Where Wild… was on the verge of collapsing into a heap of loud-pipe Harleys, Mexican tequila, bullet-breasted strippers and Jus Oborn’s VHS collection, Die Screaming is more about controlled cohesion, conventional songwriting/structure, precision wah-wah pedal work and a sense of maturity. Well, as mature as libidinous, devil-worshipping rock’n’roll can get.
That’s not to say tracks like Lucifer Lives! and Instruments Of Hellfire aren’t stellar psych rock salutes to biker and horror culture, it’s just that we didn’t predict Show Me Your Skull’s space rock middle section or the organ solo dexterity. If you were expecting the continuation of a musical apocalypse, sorry, you’ll have to settle for a solid rock record.
