Very Best of Fixes & Remixes

Borrowing some cuts off the 13th Planet release Undercover, plus some others off Cleopatra's own Every Day Is Halloween: The Anthology, this 2012 compilation from Cleopatra continues the label's love of repackaging and remixing, most of the latter done by in-house artists like Razed in Black. Those Cleopatra stalwarts offer one of the biggest surprises here with a fantastic Euro-trash remix of a re-recording of "Every Day Is Halloween." It segues nicely into the fun-and-dumb cover of AC/DC's "Thunderstruck," which beats the speed metal take on the Rolling Stones' "Paint It Black" by a length, and the ridiculous, over the top take of Eurythmics' "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)" by a mile. Cleopatra regulars will be surprised that last cut doesn't come from a Marilyn Manson tribute from the label, but all of the usual label "quirks" are here, including numerous takes of certain songs ("Every Day Is Halloween," "Stigmata," and "Jesus Built My Hotrod" dominate this track list) and some out-of-context curve balls thrown in (the politically driven, truly ferocious "Khyber Pass" sounds uneasy surrounded by so many gothic guilty pleasures). Double-check the collection so redundancy isn't an issue, and then do the usual "Oh Cleopatra! Why can't I quit you?," because cheap thrills are the only reason to hang round here.