Screaming Headless Torsos – S/T (1995)
Vinnie
Free Man
Cult Of The Internal Sun
Little Wing
Word To Herb
Blue In Green
Chernobyl Firebirds
Graffiti Cemetary
Smile In A Wave
Wedding In Sarajevo
Hope
Kermes Macabre
Another Sucka
Something
Well, I can't say the world isn't full of interesting, perhaps disturbing in a way, avant-garde bands who draw from pretty much everything under the sun to formulate their respective sounds, but in terms of sheer talent and funkiness, I can say with certainty you'll be hard pressed to find a group as oddly virtuoso as the
Screaming Headless Torsos, the sort of name that seems both freakish and inspired all at once. This particular album is the group's debut, which is considered classic among classic in certain circles (everyone involved here - Fuze, Dean Bowman, Gene Lake, Daniel Sadownick, and Fima Ephron are fairly prolific in different areas). Metal, funk, rap, jazz, reggae, opera, and hints of a countless number of other kinds of sounds pervade this LP, and certain styles are emphasized more than others depending on the track you are listening to, all of which is sharpend to a godly level behind the underrated guitar abilities of David "Fuze" Fiuczynski and vocalist Dean Bowman.
Free Man feels rather soulful, while
Blue In Green strangles you with its schizophrenic jazz (a tactic The Mars Volta employs quite often, though its not obnoxious here). However, this album is consistant from
Vinnie (see vid below) to
Something: there's not a single weak track in the bunch, and thats always a good thing in my book:
Verdict:
9.4/10
I know this sort of music, fun as it is, does not appeal to everyone (or even to that many to begin with), but its worth at-least one go through by anyone who enjoys music which is simultaneously both stimulating and crazily energizing, regardless of whatever genre(s) you may or may not prefer. This, my friends, is the kind of stuff that makes people want to be musicians.
If You Liked This Album, You Might Also Like- (The letter of the day is P!)
Pain of Salvation -
Entropia
Primus -
Sailing the Seas of Cheese
Prince -
Parade (and everything else he's done for that matter!)
Bon apetite.