Love God

Allegedly featuring the soundtrack to a short film by the same time that appears to involve convulsing, gelatinous blob men, Love God finds Milk Cult engaged in activity that makes Steel Pole Bath Tub seem tame, calm, and inviting. Instrumental credits run from Scotch tape to whipsaws and Maytag equipment, which is perfectly right for an ensemble who sounds like the masses of tools and appliances in America deciding to come to life and march on their users. Throughout Love God, the emphasis is clearly not on live playing but recording manipulation, tape use and abuse, and more besides. It's clear that the band is creating their own death metal crunches and the like, but like Portishead some years later, the idea seems to be to record it and then to deconstruct it to make the real song. If the turntable scratching isn't exactly going to have the DJs of the world shaking in their shoes, it's a way to make some ridiculous, chaotic noise — listen to "Drag Strip Riot Dream Sequence" for how bizarrely well it comes out; the band knows exactly what they're doing. The "Love God" track itself, full of plenty of heavy-duty riffing and other more immediately familiar rock noise, thinks nothing of throwing in what sounds like a mariachi loop about seven minutes in, only to slow it down and then discard it in favor of industrial sounds, clatter, and various whooshing noises. Then there's the six-part "Clown Party," running nearly 40 minutes and tackling everything from ambient sound to huge, sludgy breakbeats along the way. The funniest bit? The collage of screams, feedback, and other high-volume insanity called, but of course, "Relax and Sleep."