Millennium Monsterwork
Weird, wild, and sometimes wonderful, this live recording (deftly captured at Slim's in San Francisco on New Year's Eve 2000) is from bizarre underground "supergroup" the Fantomas, featuring Buzz Osborne ofMelvinsinfamy and formerFaith No Morefrontman Mike Patton, in this case, performing bothFantomasand Melvins tunes. The term "tunes" should be used loosely, as many of the album's 18 cuts are, as titles like "Musthing with the Phunts" and "Liquorton Gooksburg" suggest, exercises in musical oddity and excess. When guitarist-singer Osborne joins Patton (also ofMr. Bungle) in Fantomas, which featuresSlayerdrummer Dave Lombardi, there's a cacophony of influences, from death metal to experimental toBlack Sabbath. OnMillennium Monsterwork, "Hooch" and the rumbling "Night Goat" from the Melvins albumHoudiniare included, as is "Mombius Hibachi" fromHonky. "Cape Fear" and the gothic-into-punk-metal version of "The Omen," originally found on the Fantomas'Director's Cutalbum (full of bizarre reworkings of movie themes!), butt up against the painful noise of "White Men Are the Vermin of the Earth," the relatively straightahead raw rock of "Ol' Black Stooges," and the childlike spookiness of "Skin Horse." IfMillennium Monsterworksis the ultimate in musical indulgence and esoterica, there's nonetheless a pleasing power and freedom to be gleaned amid the chaos.--Katherine Turman