What do you get when you cross Sabbath, Sake and Serial Killers? Why Church Of Misery of course. The Japanese retro doom outfit have been mixing mass slaughter with stoned out riff worship for some time now and there is no reason why they should change their modus operandi. Houses Of The Unholy does for doom what Macabre does for death, so pull up a pew and make yourself comfortable, its time to grab that bottle of moonshine, take a slug and see which celebrities are in mind for the latest body count.
Adolfo de Jesús Constanzo is ‘El Padrino’ A cultist and professed psychic, involved in drug dealing and human sacrifice. Among his victims was American tourist Mark Kilroy whose story is related by the newscast at the start of the track, it’s distorted by hefty fuzz laden riffing and then dismembered by a bluesy jam,’ high on life unlike many who came across this particular individual. Body count unknown but Adolfo was killed by one of his own cult rather than suffering capture at the hands of the police. As for Church Of Misery they make his story sound kind of trippy and mellow, lacing his voodoo craft with a sound akin to snorting PCP and chasing it down with mescaline.
James Oliver Huberty is ‘Shotgun Boogie’ responsible for the San Ysidro McDonald's massacre resulting in 22 deaths and blood and mayo all over the shop. His fatalistic fast food flurry lasted 77 minutes and he fired over 250 rounds before being shot by a police sniper. As far as the song is concerned it’s also fast and furious and knocks you silly in a frenzied conglomeration of scything guitars, thudding bass and crooned out vocals. The song is snuffed out just like many of his victims with a shotgun blast, yeehaw!
Albert Fish is ‘The Grey Man’ a name that should need no real introduction. Fish was The Boogeyman of many a child’s nightmares, a cannibal and molester who preyed on the innocent. Uneducated and suffering from mental illness he only had three definite confirmed kills including that of Grace Budd in 1928, others were certainly suspected. He was captured and sentenced to death and fried on the electric chair. Funnily enough his fate is virtually replicated here by the screaming guitar work which puts on an electrifying performance of its own on this track. Also like his alter ego it boogies hard and fast and should get teeth a tapping and blood a pumping!
Richard Trenton Chase is the ‘Blood Sucking Freak.’ Body count might have only been six from the vampire of Sacramento but he liked to drink their blood and feast on their remains, apparently to stop Nazis turning his own blood to powder. In other words he was as crazy as a coot! Musically this is a slowly eviscerated number which tortures as it sinks its teeth into the listener. As for Chase the antidepressants which had obviously failed him all his life finally worked when he overdosed on them, dying in prison at the age of 30.
Richard Speck is ‘Master Heartache’ and ‘Born To Raise Hell.’ Such a perverted beast that one song is simply not enough for his nefarious deeds, which saw him butchering and raping eight student nurses to death in a night orgy of terror. At the age of 19 he got a tattoo which is the name of the second of these two tracks and my favourite on the album. From there, his delinquency escalated till that fateful night of butchery July 13th 1966. ‘Master Heartache’ relies on a rabid vocal delivery and shrill tight guitar lines to get its point across literally stabbing the listener before peeling out in a blaze of dexterous riffage. ‘BTRH’ again wins over by mighty repetition of the song title and it beats the hell out of you in the process. This is a catchy number make no mistake and comes at you like Orange Goblin and Down being told it’s last orders at the bar!
Charles Starkweather and Caril Fugate are ‘Badlands.’ Come on you must have seen the movie which immortalised their road trip to hell? Charlie killed his jailbait girlfriend’s parents and they embarked on their murderous spree across Nebraska and Wyoming before their eventual capture. Starkweather got the chair and Fugate was the youngest girl at 14 to be tried for first degree murder in the USA. She was paroled in 1976 and currently lives in Michigan. CoM sum their dash up in another slow jaunty manner complete with sirens of pursuing police. Starkweather got a cut from flying glass whilst being shot at and actually was captured after stopping thinking he was bleeding to death, a good ending for the album but a cowardly way to get captured!
Hey it’s a grim old world out there and Church Of Misery no doubt have plenty more tales to tell, in fact I’m thinking of helping them out on that score! In the meantime grab this and catch them on tour across Europe this April/May.
http://www.churchofmisery.net
http://www.myspace.com/churchofserialkiller
