WHAT HAVE I BEEN LISTENING TO?

The Process of Assimilation

Screaming Monkey Boner

Released: 1/06/2004

Label: SMB Music LLC

Genre: Metal, Synthpunk

Reverend John Wheeler IV, Bryan "Da Gimp" Pierson, Cassidy "Cass" Nee, Owen Good III

What if you ... wanted to share your music taste with your friends ... but you haven't gotten into an artist as of late that didn't have an absurdly goofy name in a while ...

Metal album themed around a robot invasion? Sign me up! I had gotten into this band back in 2023 when i started logging the music I would find throughout the year. I'd usually find these kinds of things by scrounging around related artists until something catches my eye. Thought the album cover was real striking, reminded me a bit of some of the covers from Primus. Could be the same artist, but finding information on the album is pretty difficult. Nobody seems to be selling the CD of this album anymore, unfortunately! I would of really wanted to buy it!

Now, i'm not really a music reviewer, clearly. I don't have the knowledge nor brain capacity to really explain WHY i like this album as much as i do. Compared to a lot of metal i've heard in passing, this album - and by extention the band - stands out immensely to me. Could very well just be the use of synths! The album certainly screams 2000s to me, it practically SOUNDS like what the album cover looks like.

Use of Samples! Always fun. No surprise that i'm going to mention The End... Tis Rising In Squares given the site's entire theme, BUT i always love hearing chiptune featured in metal music. Let alone the fact the instrumental itself is a metal take on the TETRIS tune. Not my very top favorite, but it's certainly appreciated! Reminds me a bit of 16-bit Piece of $#!T by Circus of Dead Squirrels, which is the only other instance off the top of my head where a metal song samples older games.

FAVORITE TRACK

Smash TV

"What's this coming to me,

some kind of notion brewing.

Caeser, he had something.

I'll be continuing.

How could this be wrong?

Death comes for us all, so..."

Alfa Gaga Cp Wifi

Bondage Fairies

Released: 21/07/2017

Label: Audiolith Records

Genre: Punk, Electro, Chiptune

Elvis Creep, Deus Deceptor

A million ways to start a blog like this and it's with the band I've been ill about since 2022. Go figure! The sky is blue once again, we've found more spoons in the utensil drawer and, miraculously, another 60 seconds have passed in africa!

You could have me listen to music scientifically proven to make people feel happier without failure and it wouldn't remotely compare to the joy I derive from this album. It carries an upbeat, punky sound throughout the entire thing that pairs incredibly well with the chiptune sound effects.

A lot of people i've spoken to have said that they find Bat Wings to be a pretty weak opening track and that the album really kicks off at I Will Never Love You, but I disagree! That could just be because i find picking a favorite track from this album the same way a mother would have trouble picking a favorite child, but on first listen to this album it was the song that REALLY pulled me in to sit with the next 30 minutes. It's rare for me to find an album full of songs I wouldn't skip no matter the circumstances.

Amongst the rest of the band's discography, i'd listened to this a LOT during the one year of college where i had to do game development. When I listen to this album i get reminded of winter mornings spent downing monster energy and PEZ candy. Good times!

The band may have been absent for a good few years, what with their last post being a non-Nobel Prize Winning Deer, but a lot of chiptune bands i've stumbled across with most of their discography in the 2000s coming back to post again in more recent years. That, and the existance of "Cop Car" (even in it's current state) make me hopeful we might see them again sometime soon.

FAVORITE TRACK

Satan You and Me, Part 2

"Ensnared in a web of lies, convincing like a priest.

Chinese food and Micheal Bolton, and you ask if i'm okay.

I gave my life to a succubus.

A three-headed, life-leeching succubus.

Ah, worship the devil now.

Ah, Satan, you and me."