Review Summary: What’s better than winning a gold medal at the Special Olympics? Not being a fucking retard! Oh that and Lawnmower Deth.
The best grind/thrash/punk/crust/humor album that you have never been privy to, Ooh Crikey It’s… Lawnmower Death is the most eclectic collection of early 90s metal that has ever graced any type of recoded media. While the band may be best known for their cover of ‘Kids in America’ their debut offering is an obscure gem of un-pretentious thrash glory. Imagine if you will the cast of Monty Python’s started a metal band, which is Lawnmower Deth in a nutshell. Tracks can range anywhere from seven seconds to a full four minutes. Buried beneath all of the shenanigans and good times lurks one hell of an album.
Mightymow Destructimow, Mr Flymo, Concorde Face Ripper, Qualcast Mutilator and Schizo Rotary Sprintmaster. No, those aren't song titles; that is the band line up. Though their later guitarist known as the illustrious Baron Kev Von Thresh Meiter Silo Stench Chisel Marbels KP may have the best stage name in the entire history of music. These lovely gentleman will intone you with all of the thrash and punk goodness that any fan of the genre could ever ask for. While their music is presented in a whimsical manner, it does not take away from the fact that they were seriously skilled musicians. Comedy, without genius or skill behind it can turn boring rather quickly. Between the varied styles of parody and humor present here, the listener is never given the chance to succumb to boredom. Twenty plus tracks spanning under 45 minutes leave basically no stone unturned. Though a primer in basic British slang and humor from the late 80s and early 90s may be in order.
This really is one of those albums that one must experience to appreciate. It would seemingly take longer to read about it than just simply checking out the release itself. The tastes changes from each song like the bins in a candy store. [i]Sheep Dip[/] is a 3 minute ode to.. well whatever the *** sheep dip is, opens with a melodic guitar passage and slowly degenerates into a thrash orgy of pornographic proportions. Then you have something like
Icky Ficky which places a minute of verbal nonsense, cowbell and minor chords into a blender and spits out the results. Follow that up with
Weebles Wobble But They Don’t Fall Down which is grind core mixed with the Chipmunks.
In the immortal words of Lawnmower Deth, if you’ve got no legs, don’t come crawling to me. Check this out. NOW!
