For a band with only slightly more musical credibility than
Sigue Sigue Sputnik,
Alien Sex Fiend have somehow managed nearly a quarter-century in continuous existence despite last having a new idea in roughly 1987. The ten-track compilation
Para-Abnormal is an anniversary best-of covering the first decade of the band's own label, 13th Moon Records. Collecting previously vinyl-only 12" mixes, new remixes and demos of songs from the last ten years of
Alien Sex Fiend releases,
Para-Abnormal does not make a particularly compelling case for the band's continued existence. Grinding industrial disco filtered through a self-consciously sleazy persona and with no sense of actual menace (or for that matter, melody), this compilation serves no purpose other than to make recent
Marilyn Manson product sound good by comparison. Newcomers: buy one of the many compilations of far more interesting early singles like "In God We Trust" and "Ignore the Machine" and pass this by. ~ Stewart Mason