THE FOETUS ALL-NUDE REVUE: Bedrock

One side of this record plays at 45, the other at 33. Side one features the title cut, an odd combination of bluesy, heavy metal mentality and a slight jazzy influence. A lot of the jazz flavor is provided by the use of an upright bass. Foetus' vocals are somewhere between a sleazy Jim Dandy and a gravelish Tom Waits, and oh does it sound slimy. Lines like "a woman's place is on my face" are sure to endear Foetus to feminists everywhere. If side one is more "body" oriented, than side two is more directed to the brain, and is much more abstract and experimental. Here we have an instrumental suite entitled "Diabolus in Musica" which is based on the tritone (augmented fourth or diminished fifth). The tritone was banned in the medieval church because it was believed to summon Satan; those who were found to be using it were often tortured to death. This piece is at times almost industrial in its harshness, and at other moments conveys the kind of creeping, slow menace I associate with a band like Univers Zero. While I was partial to the second side, the other material is certainly not run-of-the-mill.  (Relativity, 149-03 Guy R. Brewer Blvd., Jamaica, NY 11434)

Source: Option of January/February 1988, Rev. Bryan Sale.

(Original text including mis-spellings left intact)

04 July 1996