Ipecac Canada Schallplatten & CDs

Review: When is a bonafide heavy metal classic not a bonafide heavy metal classic? How about when the recording is of such poor quality many find it unlistenable, so very few heard the album. Such is the case with The Raging Wrath..., the 1986 debut LP from cult guitar experimenters Mr. Bungle, which is now getting a re-release to mark a reactivation of the outfit after 20 years of dormancy.

Returning to those early, raw tapes, the record remains pretty much untouched save for one significant difference - here the work is polished and primed for even the most discerning 21st Century ears, thanks to original members Mike Patton, Trey Spruance and Trevor Dunn, alongside ex-Slayer drummer Dave Lombardo and Anthrax's Scott Ian. If polished is really the right word. It's loud, chaotic, and impossible to predict, it's blood, sweat and tears spilled from the bowels of thrash before thrash was really a subgenre.