No warm-up, no backstage chit-chat, just a close-up of a face that looks like an autopsy of the Shroud of Turin; all of a sudden there’s this big tattooed fucker in a mohawk, a crown of barbed wire and bondage gear onstage with hooks and syringes poking out all over his face and torso as he stomps around screaming out the blood metal song “Pumpkin Man” and nailing his cock and balls to a piece of plywood.
That’s all in the first two minutes of A Taste of Blood, and for those who haven’t shut down your DVD player in horror yet, that’s entertainment! A bit of prep work for the show is seen, including the breaking of bottles over the head, the application of numerous pins and hooks, and staple-gunning of the face before we’re taken on a brief tour through singer E. Borsheim’s home, a haunted mansion filled with various sinister implements and macabre fixtures.
Then it’s back to the action with “Coffin Bangers,” enhanced with violent audience participation, smashed sheep heads, chainsaws and police; there’s also a home-wrecking, a fist fight and some behind-the-scenes footage.
The next video assemblage, for “Horrornomicon,” begins with the band playing underwater and quickly shifts into a frenzy of mutilation, vomiting, dead animal carcasses, blood drinking and stage wrecking.
The final piece is a sepia-toned Halloween nightmare for the uber-metal track “Blood,” complete with fiery jack-o-lanterns.
A Taste of Blood collects barbaric footage of the band from 1995 to 2002, and while this is all intermingled it does chart the band’s progress from young punk metal hooligans to a more violently disciplined corps of death rock engineers.
Which leaves the nagging sensation that there’s something simultaneously frustrating and well-played on the part of the band in their decision not to have any real interview footage or explanatory background material included in A Taste of Blood. Questions asking who the fuck are these guys and what the fuck is going on down in Temecula aren’t answered, but then again neither is the viewer forced to sit through a display of too much information or petty philosophy. In the end Kettle Cadaver does the wise thing with this brief ultra-violent format, shocking and perhaps scaring viewers while ultimately doing what every good act should – leave them wanting more.
Those looking for something that can be most easily described as a combination of the Misfits and GG Allin would do well to check this out, and if said fans are truly brave they’ll catch Kettle Cadaver live on tour later this year…
And for those of you who thought I left the site; I’ll be around from time to time guest reviewing.
-Tom Crites.
- Interview with J.R. Bookwalter - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Andrew J. Rausch - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Rick Popko and Dan West - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Director Stevan Mena (Malevolence) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Screenwriter Jeffery Reddick (Day of the Dead 2007) - January 22, 2015
- Teleconference interview with Mick Garris (Masters of Horror) - January 22, 2015
- A Day at the Morgue with Corri English (Unrest) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Writer/Director Nacho Cerda (The Abandoned, Aftermath) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actress Thora Birch (Dark Corners, The Hole, American Beauty) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actor Jason Behr, Plus Skinwalkers Press Coverage - January 22, 2015
