It's another of those peculiar British thrash sleeves which suggests the band are desperate to venture towards a slightly funkier edge - this is proven immediately when 'Rude Awakening' stumbles in, somewhere between a chug and a slither, and then there's the silly face-pulling, a jazzy riff here and there and those vocals which have moved away from the typical, straight-edged thrash chaos of before. I dunno, can I bear it ? Well, it's certainly a better listen than Ignorance, the rhythm of the opener is catchy and the production of Colin Richardson as clinical as one would expect. However, I just can't get away from the fact that this type of bubblegum thrash shoots itself in the foot, it lacks identity and tries to imitate everything else around it. 'Laughing' is a sign of the times as more and more bands strived for a more colourful adventure which wouldn't last as grunge took over a year later. I guess I can, at times, see why bands sold their souls to funk, they may have seen no future in thrash but considering how long thrash lasted compared to funk Re-Animator should have stuck to their guns. That's not to say that Re-Animator completely buried their head in the funky sands, but the album, especially with its sleeve, reeks of that sickly multi-coloured vomit that littered metal back in the day. The songs are well structured, from the chugging 'Laughing', and a half-decent cover of 'Too Drunk To Fuck', but in the end the comedy element just grates and by the time 'Monkey See, Monkey Dance' opens side two I've given up with the tom foolery. The only bands who could combine such styles being Mordred and Suicidal Tendencies who bands such as Re-Animator can't even hold a candle to.Tuesday, 22 February 2011
Re-Animator - Laughing (1991)
It's another of those peculiar British thrash sleeves which suggests the band are desperate to venture towards a slightly funkier edge - this is proven immediately when 'Rude Awakening' stumbles in, somewhere between a chug and a slither, and then there's the silly face-pulling, a jazzy riff here and there and those vocals which have moved away from the typical, straight-edged thrash chaos of before. I dunno, can I bear it ? Well, it's certainly a better listen than Ignorance, the rhythm of the opener is catchy and the production of Colin Richardson as clinical as one would expect. However, I just can't get away from the fact that this type of bubblegum thrash shoots itself in the foot, it lacks identity and tries to imitate everything else around it. 'Laughing' is a sign of the times as more and more bands strived for a more colourful adventure which wouldn't last as grunge took over a year later. I guess I can, at times, see why bands sold their souls to funk, they may have seen no future in thrash but considering how long thrash lasted compared to funk Re-Animator should have stuck to their guns. That's not to say that Re-Animator completely buried their head in the funky sands, but the album, especially with its sleeve, reeks of that sickly multi-coloured vomit that littered metal back in the day. The songs are well structured, from the chugging 'Laughing', and a half-decent cover of 'Too Drunk To Fuck', but in the end the comedy element just grates and by the time 'Monkey See, Monkey Dance' opens side two I've given up with the tom foolery. The only bands who could combine such styles being Mordred and Suicidal Tendencies who bands such as Re-Animator can't even hold a candle to.
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