Customer Reviews

A Minute to Pray, A Second to Die

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

A truly great CD from the classic Flesh Eaters line-up (frontman Chris D., joined for this one time by John Doe and D.J. Bonebrake from X, Dave Alvin and Bill Bateman from the Blasters, and Steve Berlin, soon to join Los Lobos). I'll admit that Chris D.'s vocals are not for everyone (his voice can get a little shrill &/or overly whacked at times -- I dig it, but it drives others from the room), but if you like blues-drenched punk (something of a cross between early Gun Club and Fun House-era Stooges -- not fast, but heavy and intense), you are sure to like this one. Marimba, sax, epic tales of death, unrequited love, and self-mutilation...what's not to love? This album is proof of how diverse and creative punk could be. Plus, for all of you art-rockers out there, this is the same Chris D. that produced the Dream Syndicate's "Days of Wine and Roses" that you all love so much...

This is Byron Coley's favorite album of all time. Does anything else need to be said?!? This album represents the best Flesheaters line up as well as the best songs. Despite Christgau's comment that Chris D. sounds like a strangled werewolf, the screams he lets loose on "See You in the Boneyard" are some of the most intense moments in all of rock 'n roll.

A perfect album.

An amazing record. This came out in 1981 with another line-up and it is more atmospheric with elements of country, blues, rockabilly and death rock.The highest point is Cris D. voice and singing style, he is one of the best punk rock singers ever.Buy this record if you have an open mine and want to hear something different.

Just a minor correction here, Allen: Steve Berlin was actually the saxophonist for Los Lobos. It was Steve MACKAY who played superbly on FUN HOUSE: IMHO, the finest tenor-sax of any rock LP EVER! Anyhow, this is the only Flesheaters CD I've ever heard so I can't compare to their other releases, but I like this one just fine, thanks! Also, note that it's acid-damaged rock critic Byron Coley's all time favourite LP, for what that's worth...

I recently bought a Flesh Eaters greatest hits CD, but honestly, I think their best songs are right here on this album (if only it included "Pony Dress"!) The group's personnel lineup was never stronger, and the longish songs give them a chance to show off instrumentally, especially Steve Berlin on "Divine Horseman" and DJ Bonebreak on "Satan's Stomp". The dark, pseudo-religious lyrics are a bit off-putting, but musically this is a superb effort.

The Flesh Eaters somehow never really flourished. Chris D. is in my mind THE most gifted vocalist to emerge from punk, a reasonably talented poet, and a master of junk culture -- particularly B-movies, which very much shows through in his songwriting (he's got a gift for taking the macho cliches of noir, the hysteria of bad horror movies, and the hyperbolic cliches of teen angst love stories and wringing from them authenticity, fire, and blood). His bands, particularly this one, have always been loved by critics and music freaks; but their obscurity now extends to such a lamentable degree that in praising their most recent release, ASHES OF TIME, one critic described it as a stunning DEBUT, "amazingly confident for a first album." They've been around for 20 years, though, in some form or another, if you don't count varied hiatuses. Unfortunately, their finest output -- FOREVER CAME TODAY and HARD ROAD TO FOLLOW -- hasn't ever REALLY been available on CD to any noteworthy extent, and certainly isn't NOW. Even their SST material, like the excellent DRAGSTRIP RIOT and a couple of greatest hits albums, is gone, unavailable. This is what's left of their older material - the 1982 release that was their most commercially successful, if not the best loved by serious fans... The songs are a little less dark, less masculine, less powerful, I think, than on a few of their subsequent albums; the lyrics ("Cyrano de Berger's Back" for example) lean a little too much, for me, towards seeming like "love songs" (as opposed to the boiling, blood-engorged, violent passion in evidence on other albums) and the added saxophone -- courtesy of Steve Berlin -- wasn't he the dude on the Stooges' FUN HOUSE? -- also just doesn't sit right. All that said, the songs ARE strong and tight and catchy and the album IS a good one; the band, for afficionados of the LA punk scene of the time, also features John Doe, DJ Bonebrake, and Dave Alvin (and a guy named Bill Bateman, but, well, sorry, Bill, I never heard o' you otherwise). Since you'd probably be wasting time waiting for HARD ROAD TO FOLLOW to be made available, you can either try to hunt down used pressings of the SST stuff -- or else buy this, which will give you a good taste of why the Flesheaters are a legend to be revered, among those who remember. Just bear in mind that, good as this album is, they only got better...