Zimmers Hole
Bound By Fire
Legion of Flames
This is one of those “speedbump” albums that makes my brain skip the first time I hear it. I just have to take a step back and rethink things for a bit. What the hell are these guys trying to do? Feel better now? OK.
This album is full of playful, expert musicianship, and is recorded really well. I really want to know what that cool, metallic ringing sound is in the silences of the 24-second “Blister” (my favorite track on the album). “Waste of Towels” provided me with hours and hours of entertainment. Even though I recently lost my sense of humor, hearing a guy singing “Pee On The Floor!” at the top of his lungs is… for some reason… something that makes me laugh. I could have done without that tray photo, though. I think to myself, “hey, pretend it’s just something out of a medical book.”
There’s some excellent digital audio editing here; all the songs flow together perfectly. The other short masterpiece (clocking in at 48 seconds), “Two-headed Anal Baby,” is quite amusing, as well. Then there’s “Peanut Butter Kitty,” a real fun, multi-cartoon characterish, Gwar-like rocker. Pretty damn heavy in some parts. “Here Kitty!” Ha! “Fully Packed” sounds like someone had a little too much sugar. That opera voice on “Bred” is fucking perfectly placed. The line about the sword in “Metal” is brilliant.
Track 15 has 4 songs on it, spaced out over 10 minutes. The first one is a monotonously pounding song with sci-fi keyboards called “Bound By Fire.” That’s all it says over and over again. “Bound by fire, bound in flame.” You can’t really understand the voice, though… it sounds like Satan himself. It slows down more and more, before finally grinding to a halt, like the Dark Overlord needed a little nappy-poo. Then there’s about 3.5 minutes of silence before “S-26,” a song about a coffee machine, comes on. I wish more bands did songs like that. Then this silly voice song (with lots of cheap techno mouth-generated percussion) comes on. I don’t know who is doing that barbarian belch/growl, but it rules! Right after that is the heaviest song I’ve heard in a long time. The keyboard part kills me. It sounds like a little Mickey Mouth flute sound out of a cheap Casio keyboard.
This album makes me ponder the very physiological nature of comedy and laughter. When I listen to their music, why must I react with a sore stomach, headache, and a monosyllabic “Ha!”??? Legion of Flames, 1856 Pandora St., Vancouver, BC V5L1M5 CANADA
