review of the koffin kats ~ straying from the pack
"Master, have I done thy bidding well enough?"
"Oh yes, my son - You'll be a king in Hell!"
"Oh yes, my son - You'll be a king in Hell!"
At first glance the album is unassuming. The cover is a deep sepia tone image of frontman Vic Victor hanging precariously off a hotel balcony ledge or parking structure, drinks in hand, with the other two Kats wildly cheering him on from the background. The title is laid neatly across the bottom of the album in standard gothic heavy metal lettering. But this is not a heavy metal album, per se. Somewhere between Psychobilly and Thrash Metal is the haunted world of the Koffin Kats - a nightmare world where suffering and dismemberment is rampant and Satan comes to call.
In a flurry of drums and speed guitar work that leaves the listener yearning for more, Straying From The Pack plays out from start to finish in only slightly over sixteen minutes in total length. Contained within those sixteen minutes are eight tracks of some of the most depraved and gruesome imagery you’ll find this side of the Texas chainsaw border. Listening closely and you’ll hear Victor croon “Time to go
and fetch up from the traps out in the woods - Had some luck this time -She's a
little big so I'll eat for a while - You hear the rattling out on the porch? It's
strung up skulls banging in the wind.” Definitely not Kids Bop fare… The tune Setting Her Free is oddly reminiscent of
John Murphy’s In the House, In a
Heartbeat theme from 28 Days Later.
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Though the album is intense from start to finish and it by no means suffers lacking brutal stuff of nightmares, it comes up short in the overall feeling of completeness. With the addition of another four or five songs I’d dare call it a masterpiece, but its short length is somewhat detracting.
Psychobilly puritans may pan it as Thrashabilly or Speedmetalbilly, but it does so much psychological damage to the psyche of those who hear it that those naysayers wouldn’t dream of saying it to the Koffin Kats’ face! It’s a terrifying ride through a twisted landscape of hopelessness and torture… and isn’t that what we’re really here for?
For its breakneck speed and sheer vulgarity, I give Koffin Kats’ Straying From The Pack…
4 out of 5!
4 out of 5!