Thought Industry
Mods Carve The Pig: Assassins, Toads and God’s Flesh (Metal Blade)
by Paul Lee
God damn! My head’s reeling and my ears have nearly been ripped off of my skull. This is what comes of exposing myself to the cerebral screwing, audio thrill known as Thought Industry. I’ve heard modernistic, off-beat and avante-guard stuff in my time, but Thought Industry take the razor-filled cake. They get the daily double for being the kings of bizarre, multi-faceted rock (or whatever the hell you call it).
Mods Carve The Pig: Assassins, Toads and God’s Flesh is their newest CD and from the edge of the disc, Thought Industry explode like a shell tearing out of an M-1 tank and heading towards Jerry Falwell’s house. Then, to really screw you up, they wack you over the head with a brutal, thrashing pace and toss you into a nice, mellow field of flowers for a brief stay only to return you to another dose of brainy brutality. This shit is like taking acid and coke in major quantities, bungee jumping and landing on a monstrous feather pillow and then back up again.
Yes, the pace thing and the just generally screwy riffs ‘n chords are just some of the lovely elements that makes them so brain-frying. But add to this twisted concoction some lyrics that are as far out as the edge of the Milky Way and you may get a miniscule idea what I’m going on about. Just imagine what music must go with songs like “Date Rape Cookbook” and “Smirk The Godblender.” Got an audio image? Well forget it, you’ll have to blast T.I. into your own ears to really have a clue. The easiest song to dig is the instrumental entitled “To Build A Better Bulldozer” and even that’s damn hard to keep up with.
Of course, experiencing T.I. first hand will show you that I’m not just a raving lunatic (at least at the present moment). There’s no earthly way that I can truly convey to you fine folks just what these four guys from Kalamazoo, Michigan spew forth musically and conceptually. Their influences seem to be mammoth in range. Ranging from genres like thrash, industrial, alternative and hardcore to jazz, folk, and progressive rock. I’m sure I missed a bunch, too.
Lucky for me, I don’t have to tag them with a nice little, easily comprehensible label ’cause it ain’t possible (I guess I could come up with one of my wacky terms but you’d still have not sane frame of reference).
There’s only a couple of problems with Thought Industry: They’re a little hard to comprehend, and they have a hell of a lot going on that’s tricky to keep up with at times. Ever see one of those surrealistic painters like Dali (whose artwork happens to adorn Mods…) and get swept away by all the wild stuff that’s going on, but still not have a clue behind its meaning? That’s probably the same effect that T.I. will have on you. They also may be a bit pretentious, but at least they know how to fuck up your head in an enlightened way! Lastly, they use a capital O everywhere on the CD insert and that just irks me a bit.
If you like music that sounds, and is, weirder than all I’ve babbled about, then you must check out Thought Industry. If you like to feed your head safer musical fare, stay the hell away. If you can’t tell from all my rambling (even though I got somewhat damaged intellectually and neurologically) I definitely dug this disc. Be warned and enjoy!
