In 1986, a fledgling
Mr. Bungle issued a cassette demo called
Raging Wrath of the Easter Bunny, a blistering slab of gnarly lo-fi/NoCal thrash metal that sounded like it was extracted from the toothy side of a wood chipper. The tape impressed fellow freak-metallers
Faith No More enough to ask frontman
Mike Patton to take up the mic and join their cause, which he did, but on the condition that he would also continue fronting
Mr. Bungle. Far removed from the nightmarish circus-funk-metal/avant-garde jazz stylings of the band's eponymous 1991 full-length debut and subsequent full-length efforts,
Raging Wrath of the Easter Bunny was unapologetically metal. The band take that into account on this savage 2020 re-recording -- their first since 1999's
California -- which sees original members
Mike Patton,
Trey Spruance, and
Trevor Dunn joined by
Anthrax guitarist
Scott Ian and ex-
Slayer drummer
Dave Lombardo. Commencing with the liquid instrumental "Grizzly Addams,"
RWOTEB officially lifts off with the searing "Anarchy Up Your Anus," a punk-metal bruiser that sets a relentless pace, with
Lombardo's blunt-force kit work and
Ian's punchy and indelible riffage leading the charge. All of the songs bear the sonic watermarks of the era in which they were written -- hearing them with the fidelity cranked up to 11 is a real thrill -- with "Bungle Grind" and the lurid "Raping Your Mind" echoing classic West Coast thrash and the white-knuckle closer "Sudden Death" evoking early-'80s crossover and hardcore. A pair of unreleased cuts, the addled punk-metal gems "Methamatics" and "Eracist," and a blazing rendition of
Corrosion of Conformity's "Loss for Words" fit seamlessly into the taut 11-track set. What's best is that
Raging Wrath of the Easter Bunny doesn't sound like it was brought into the 21st century kicking and screaming. It does all that and more, but there's so much mad joy at the helm -- this is a band who would close their shows with a faithful cover of the
Alan Parsons Project ballad "Time" while masked and covered in blood -- that the material feels bracing, vital, and rooted in the present.