(Cleopatra) www.cleorecs.com
Satan is a headbanger, that much you already knew. But he also likes to go to the disco, occasionally, presumably to pick up goth chicks. Electric Hellfire Club is his favorite band, and their be-horned frontman, Thomas Thorn, is what Lucifer probably calls his "Left hand man". After leaving Thrill Kill Kult ten years ago, when they gave up the metal rape guitars and psycho slasher anthems for groovy sex disco, Thorn formed the Hellfire Club to conjure demons and bedevil the populace with authentically Satanic music. The sound in their early days was beat heavy death dance, laced with horror movie clips and much growling. As time went on, things got slinkier, although no less heavy, and it was only a matter of time before their sound embraced that darkest of all things that rock, black metal. EHC actually traveled to Sweden to record this album at infamous Abyss studios, the first American band to enter the Hellish lair, the studio of choice for all the biggest corpsepainted church burners. Some of the infernal cult even dropped in on the unholy ritual, and there's guest blast beats, sonic voodoo, and mournful wailing from Lord Ahriman of Dark Funeral, Peter Tagtgren of Hypocrisy, and David Larsson of In Aeturnum dwelling, deep and mysterious, in the belly of Electronomicon. This album is like the thundering soundtrack to a Cenobite rampage, digital teeth and black blood spurting everywhere. The Cyborg James Hetfield and Rachel Bolan thrash licks are like air raid sirens warning of an impending UFO blitzkrieg, the acid drenched circus of horrors carnival barking has nothing but bad and worse news, and all the squiggles, demonic mumbling and serial killer samples you'd expect from an electro-evil band twist around in your skull like brain parasites, the whole overwhelming experience a vagina dentata of industrial fuck metal, only louder, heavier, meaner, and more Satanic than ever before. It's the most fun you can have worshipping the devil, and believe me, that's pretty fun to begin with.