Ipecac RecordingsThis Halloween, the riffs are coming from inside the house.
On Friday, Mr. Bungle will release The Raging Wrath of the Easter Bunny Demo, a rerecorded version of the band’s 1986 demo of the same name. The album, which was recorded by original members Mike Patton, Trey Spruance and Trevor Dunn, plus Anthrax guitarist Scott Ian and ex-Slayer drummer Dave Lombardo, is a thrash-tastic opus featuring giant riffs and snarling vocals that reflects the group’s pure love for all things metal.
“I feel like Trey and Mike and I were in the school of metal in the ’80s,” bassist Dunn tells ABC Audio. “We were following all those bands closely and learning that music.”
Over the years, Mr. Bungle has ventured into a variety of musical territories, as bands featuring Patton are often wont to do, but thrash was the group’s first love. And with Ian and Lombardo on board, that brought The Raging Wrath to a whole new level.
“I feel like it authenticizes [sic] us as a metal band, having those guys in it,” Dunn laughs.
Overall, The Raging Wrath feels like a record both in and out of time — one that reflects both the youthful energy of the original demo and who the band members are as musicians today. That juxtaposition is more literal with a song such as “Eracist,” which features newly written lyrics over a riff written during the original demo sessions.
“Adding this new/old stuff, I think it actually rounded out the record really well,” Dunn says. “It’s kind of a long record, but we felt like we’re probably never gonna do this again, we’re never gonna record anything like this ever again, so we might as well just present it all now.”
By Josh Johnson
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