Zodiac Mindwarp and the Love Reaction - I Am Rock
(Cosmosodomistic) www.cosmosodomistic.com

The Love Reaction were the biggest, meanest gang of greasy rock desperadoes ever to roam the earth and their calling card- besides all the blood and semen they left behind in desecrated hotel rooms- was an almost holy proficiency for tearing monolithic riffs right out of the sky and crucifying you with them, nailing you down right where you stand with lethal doses of diamond-hard cock rock . Add a messianic front-man with a penchant for lyrics so trash culture-profound you want to carve them right into your arm, a New Barbarian world view, and plenty of Nazi leather, and you've got an enduring rock and roll legend, albeit one that only the cool kids actually get. Those cool kids have been talkin', though, and the Love Reaction's profile has been climbing higher with every one of their peer's shameful downfalls. I'm pretty sure Ian Astbury's ill-advised decision to join the fuckin' Doors precipitated "I Am Rock", or maybe it was Iggy's last art-loft noise record. Whichever. All I know for sure is that Zodiac and Cobalt are the last men standing in the decades-long rock and roll war (even Flash, Evil, Slam, and the rest of the original Love Reaction have slunk back to their council estates, or whatever you call the shitholes that used up Brit-rock heroes end up in) and it doesn't look like anybody's about to march up the black leather mountain and shove them off ,if the considerable strength of this, their latest 'comeback' record is any indication. Of course, without all the soldiers reporting for duty, you've got a stripped-down fighting unit, which makes it easier to figure out where the Love Reaction's spiritual inspiration comes from- AC/DC's "Let There Be Rock" album. Sometimes they even scribble down Angus's sonic scriptures verbatim, as in the title track, and the snaky "King of Love", but there's no shame in that game, really. Just about every band featured on this page rips off AC/DC. The Love Reaction just does it with more sense of entitlement than most. Besides the convincing boogie metal work-outs, there's a couple of tracks that might make you question Zod's unwavering allegiance to his dick. Truth is, Z's always had an ear for shmaltzy pop songs, and ever since '91's "Hoodlum Thunder" album, he's been slowly peeling off the crusty leather to show glimpses of his lighter side in between the bouts of bluster, and he does it at least twice here, with "Jane in Blue" and "Helsinki Motorcycles", both of which are dead-ringers for Iggy's post-Stooges, pre-"Cold Metal" heart bleeders, which is right on time, if you think about it. Anyway, the pop stuff is offset and positively engulfed by the Prime Love Reaction screamers- the aforementioned AC/DC cops, the Wilt Chamberlain sex monster theme "20,000 Women", and the epic crotch grabber "Hurricane", which absolutely rivals even "Prime Mover" for pure Zod-powered Super Rock bliss. "I Am Rock" ends in an aggro-freakout, "Christmas Eve on the Reeperbahn", which sounds like the Love Reaction's homage to "Jesus Built My Hotrod". It's 5 minutes of a loopy thrash riff racing around Zod's apocalyptic beat poetry, and it's probably tagged on the end like a bitter after-taste just to remind you the Reaction ain't gone soft. As if there was any question. Have no fear, brothers and sisters, the Zodiac Mindwarp lives and seethes, and rock and roll is saved for yet another day.