The re-recording of Mr. Bungle's high school 1986 demo will be released just in time for Halloween via Ipecac Recordings on October 30th.
In February Mike Patton, Trey Spruance and Trevor Dunn reformed their childhood band to perform songs from their very first death metal demo cassette The Raging Wrath Of The Easter Bunny. The original members enlisted the help of genre legends Dave Lombardo and Scott Ian to help resurrect the faded almost un-listenable songs and give them new life.
"There's always been a difference between how fans look at the band and how we look at the band. That's true for most bands, but for ours more than most. We never stopped being metalheads in our minds, even though we've grown all these other appendages. So for us, going back to the roots is totally exciting." - Spruance 2020 [Revolver Studio Report]
You can listen to Raping Your Mind now! Video by Eric Livingston.
The 11-song release features tracks written by the band for their 1986 cassette only demo as well as a re-imagined cover of the S.O.D. classic Hypocrites / Habla Español O Muere (a.k.a. Speak English or Die) and Corrosion of Conformity’s Loss For Words. The album was produced by Mr. Bungle, recorded by Husky Höskulds at Studio 606, and mixed by Jay Ruston. Rhea Perlman narrates Anarchy Up Your Anus.
"Recording THIS music with THESE guys was an enormous head-rush of virtuosity and surprises every day in the studio,” explains Patton. “Trey’s video game-esque solos, Scott’s bionic right hand and cyborg-like precision, Dave’s caveman-meets-Bobby Brady-like drum fills, Trevor’s solid foundation and laser-focus to detail. There is nothing sweeter than getting your ass kicked by true comrades…where everyone has a singular drive and mission.”
Trevor Dunn adds: “Recording this record felt like we were finally utilizing our Ph.Ds in Thrash Metal. All we had to do was go back to our original professors for some additional guidance and talk them into joining us. Turns out we were A+ students. We even went for extra credit by revisiting some tunes that we'd given up on back in the day. It was less like a trip of nostalgia and more like the refining of an original, worthy document. We were haunted for 35 years by the fact that this music wasn't given it's due respect. Now we can die.”
In addition the the standard CD Digipak, the album is available in other limited formats:
CD Yearbook - 5000
Cassette Webstore Exclusive - 500
2LP Translucent Ruby Red Vinyl - 6500
2LP Webstore Exclusive Clear with Black Splatter Vinyl - 1000
2LP US Webstore Exclusive Silver with Red/Black Splatter Vinyl - 1000
2LP US Retail Exclusive Clear with Blood Red Splatter Vinyl - 2000
2LP International Retail Exclusive Transparent Red Smoke Vinyl - 3500
PLUS LIMITED EDITION FORMATS & BUNDLES AT
The Raging Wrath of the Easter Bunny Demo track list:
1. Grizzly Adams
2. Anarchy Up Your Anus
3. Raping Your Mind
4. Hypocrites / Habla Español O Muere
5. Bungle Grind
6. Methematics
7. Eracist
8. Spreading The Thighs of Death
9. Loss For Words
10. Glutton For Punishment
11. Sudden Death
Photo by Eric Larsen
Mr. Bungle was formed in an impoverished lumber and fishing town by a trio of curious, volatile teenagers. Trey Spruance, Mike Patton and Trevor Dunn beget the amorphous “band” in 1985 up in Humboldt County, Calif., sifting through a variety of members until around 1989 when they settled on a lineup that managed to get signed to Warner Bros. Records. No one really knows how this happened and it remains a complete mystery that even the algorithms of the internet can’t decode. Up until 2000 they released three albums (Mr. Bungle in 1991, Disco Volante in 1995 and California in 1999), toured a good portion of the Western hemisphere and avoided any sort of critical acclaim. Some argue that the band subsequently broke up but there is also no proof of this. What is true is that they took 20 years off from performing under said moniker while they pursued various other musics that, in contrast, paid the rent.