Every once in a while, I think most people would agree, you hear an album that just absolutely grabs you from the first moment you put needle to groove, insert disc into player, or click play.I think it is equally true that sometimes an album just presses your “fun album” button.This is just such an album.
Truth be told, I’d never heard of Cybernetic Witch Cult before a couple of months ago.But when I first clicked “play” on the ol’ compy 4000 (actually it’s a Dell desktop pc but that’s no fun) I was instantly grabbed by their offering Spaceous Cretaceous.It’s not every album that begins with what I can only assume is an audio clip from a classic B-movie that I’m unfamiliar with that says “…sir, we’re an anti-terrorist unit…we weren’t trained to hunt these mega-dinosaurs…” then get instantly launched by a wave of blistering riffs into a heavy metal tale of humans being hunted by velociraptors brought back by a crash landed ship containing animals from Earth’s past causing the ending of mankind and ushering in a new age of dinosaurs.That’s just what happens though in the opening track “Velocirapture.”Then, just as you’re realizing that you can’t stop grinning like a Cheshire cat, your Alice-in-Wonderland tale continues further down the rabbit hole as Harrison Ford spouts off one of Han Solo’s classic one-liners “…I thought they smelled bad on the outside…” whisking the listener away to the frozen wastelands of Hoth, retelling the tale of Luke Skywalker’s near-death experience at the hands of the vicious Wampa in “Hunted on Hoth.”Indeed, many of the songs contained herein have some connection to sci-fi and pop culture with audio bites employed before and during songs to hilarious and magnificent effect.“Dark Star” is a peek into the 1974 John Carpenter sci-fi comedy of the same name, while “Hail to the King” retells the saga of Ash as he battles the “Evil Dead” through time.Groovy.“Cloven Hooves, Horns and Wings” tells the story of a lonely Lucifer coming to Earth once every thousand years seeking his Princess of Darkness to share damnation with, and “Enchantress” is the classic tale of a succubus consuming her prey.There are more fun and awesome pop culture references that I will not spoil here. The reason I won’t divulge those is because apart from all the well-placed tongue-in-cheek humor, at its’ heart Spaceous Cretaceous is a brilliant metal masterpiece blending heavy as hell riffs straddling the line between traditional metal, doom, and stoner rock with creative songwriting and storytelling, and it truly deserves to be listened to from purely musical standpoint…seriously…without cracking up while throwing the horns…Hey!Cut that out!I said seriously!
This album is groovy, plainly and simply groovy in every aspect.The humor will grab you but the musical hooks will keep you coming back for listen after listen.
-Riffcaster
https://cyberneticwitchcult.bandcamp.com/