Death Ride 69

September 19 - 26, 1 9 9 6 [Off the Record]

**1/2 Death Ride 69

SCREAMING DOWN THE GRAVITY WELL

(Fifth Column)
At the climax of the '80s, heavy metal and post-new-wave drum-machine-and-samples dance music arrived at a mutually beneficial conclusion: psycho dance music could sound evil if it grew a backbone and added some fuzz; metal could sound postmodern futuristic-wastelandish (and less 1969-era Sabbath) if it clanked and clunked a little more and maybe had a beat you could dance to. It's now getting harder to pass off the mix as futuristic. My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult and KMFDM sound dated, with beats that can't match either the depth of hip-hop and techno or the sample-dense death-rock groove, visual kitsch, and sonic camp of White Zombie. So Screaming, a Thrill Kill Kult side project, ought to be a death-disco cliché with production just a few bleepy electronic accents to the left of early Ministry. Ought to, but the thing continually rocks; the production clichés lay a dirty foundation for some of this year's finest heavy-metal riffs, outclassing the whole Filter/Stabbing Westward/Gravity Kills axis. And "Elvis Christ: The Resurrection" sports one of the catchiest hard-rock riffs since Danzig's "Twist of Cain."
-- Carly Carioli
(Death Ride 69 open for My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult at Axis on Lansdowne Street this Tuesday, September 24. Call 262-2437.)