Miss Muerte

Chris D.'s snarling tom-cat warble and macabre wordplay continue to drive the Flesh Eaters on their tenth release, Miss Muerte. Granted, these 11 tunes aren't as obstinate as earlier material, but with songs like "Violent Lullaby," "Before I Die," and "Tombstone Dialect," you know this isn't a kinder, gentler, grown-up Flesh Eaters. The majority of these tracks were written for D.'s film I Pass for Human, and by sequencing the title track as both the intro and outro it gives the disc a subtle cinematic wrap-around quality. Of particular interest is the vocal interplay between D. and longtime collaborator Julie Christensen on the track "Azami," in which they come across like a sinister Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazlewood. Miss Muerte isn't a daring record on the level of A Minute to Pray, a Second to Die, but like the remainder of the Flesh Eaters discography, fire and passion are burned onto every cut.