Note that I said "metaphorical." I don't swing that way, thank ya very much.

Anyway... let's talk Mindscraper.

Originally meant to be released with the title "Scared Stiff" last year (only to be delayed due to record label issues, then ultimately retitled and packaged with new art from Frightfeast Comix, which, though awesome, sadly cannot compare to the Ed Repka painting that accompanied the original planned release), Blood Freak's latest album Mindscraper offers more of the same for fans of the group's earlier efforts. At the same time, it showcases an artistic evolution that is to be expected from a band now on its fourth full-length outing.

Mind you, when I say "evolution," that shouldn't be a scary word. The members of Blood Freak haven't abandoned their core sound or style, nor have they stopped bathing themselves up to the eyeballs in stinking, slimy vats full of grindhouse and Video Boom-era sleazeball cheese. Blood Freak has not pussied out. You'll find no contemplative, extended instrumental passages, no power ballads, no acoustic twangs, crooning laments, nor pretentious experimental fuckery. This is still the same Blood Freak you've always loved, just older, wise, and better than ever.

Blood Freak has long been a band notorious for its affectionate overuse of b-movie audio samples, but on Mindscraper such elements are almost wholly absent. It seems like the band has taken every single sample that they would normally spread out over the course of a dozen (or two) songs, and compressed 'em all together into "Psychoplasmics," a three-minute chunk of metallic psychedelia completely bereft of any lyrics outside of said samples, that acts as a perfect intro for Mindscraper, as well as a good primer on what Blood Freak is all about for first-time listeners as well.

Kudos to anybody who can name every single source for the samples here, by the way, for such an individual is a far more experienced and knowledgeable cult/exploitation-obsessed cinephile than I.

Following the filthy, 80's-inspired horror film score scum-funk of "Psychoplasmatics," the record launches headlong into the all-out assault of "Merchants Of Sleaze" (the title of which is a callback to the band's 2003 album Sleaze Merchants). What a great way to kick off a record! This is seriously one of the best Blood Freak songs I've heard in a long time. It's as brutal as an inbred axe-murderer, catchier than Ebola, and as trippy as a Coffin Joe movie watched whilst under the influence of L.S.D.

So, in other words, par for the course for Blood Freak.

Other highlights on the album include "Sleeping In Hell," "Scared Stiff," the title track, and "Gobble Up Your Guts, Part 3." For the very best of the best, however, check out "Death Trip... In The Drug Den Of The Damned," "Pink On The Inside," "Paralyzed By The Medusa Spider," and my current favorite "Sex Trash Princess." It's gritty, slippery, caustic n' chaotic goodness with a wicked, raunchy solo around the two-minute mark.

Mindscraper, and in fact the music of Blood Freak in general, is not for folks who like their death metal progressive, overly melodic, or melded with modern metalcore. Old school grindcore fans looking for "a deeper meaning" or political messages can take their soapboxes elsewhere, and goregrind-loving admirers of the godawful "slam" style of groups like Devourment can go fuck themselves. This probably isn't going to be your cup of tea, ya dig?

While Blood Freak definitely has a strong shot of grindcore in its extremely intense and quite kinetic approach, the band owes much of its sound to older death metal acts from the 80's. It is music inspired by a time when death metal was less about being flashy or impressing audiences with hyper-complex guitar-based mathematics and far, far less concerned with being deadly serious and intellectually relevant. Think of albums like "Scream Bloody Gore" by Death, "From Beyond" by Massacre, "Mental Funeral" by Autopsy, or virtually anything ever recorded by Impetigo. Then throw in a few hits of acid, just to warp out the edges and add a taste of wobbly weirdness to the proceedings.

Admirably, Blood Freak manages to keep from sounding like one of those flaccid, paint-by-the-numbers "tribute" bands desperately trying to resurrect a long lost era, oft-times ending up betraying their own intentions by coloring everything with a hipster-born sense of nostalgic irony or camp.

This, my fiendish friends, is dirty, heavy, super-fast, sort-of sloppy, dumb-fun death metal at its finest and most fetid. In this writer's eyes, Blood Freak hasn't been this strong since 2006's Live Fast, Die Young, ...And Leave A Flesh-Eating Corpse.

Through a haze of marijuana smoke, Blood Freak's Mindscraper comes out swinging, armed with a fiendish sense of humor and gratuitous gorehound fanboy sensibilities, splattering blood and guts across a psychedelic soundscape populated by slashers, sluts, and (of course) the ever-present Turkey Monster.

My advice? Get your hands on this scuzzy, solid slab of salaciously sadomasochistic, savagely sinister, schizophrenic sonic schlock (out now from Willowtip Records) as soon as possible. It might be another year before we get another Blood Freak album.

Here's hoping it's not.

Until next slime...
Stay sick!
Your pickled pal,
William Weird.