Mr. Bungle Formally Announce New Album, Premiere First Single
Mr. Bungle fans, time to get excited like you were the dude in “The Girls of Porn”: the band is getting ready to release their first new album in 21 years!
As we first learned back in March, the highly-influential, envelope-pushing group has re-recorded their 1986 demo, The Raging Wrath of the Easter Bunny, with their current line-up. That line-up includes original members Mike Patton (Faith No More, vocals) Trey Spruance (Secret Chiefs 3, guitar), Trevor Dunn (Tomahawk, bass) along with Scott Ian (Anthrax, guitar) and Dave Lombardo (ex-Slayer, Suicidal Tendencies, etc., drums).
Now the group has announced that the re-recording, which they’re calling The Raging Wrath of the Easter Bunny Demo, will be released on October 30 via Patton’s own Ipecac Recordings.
They’ve also released a single — the new version of the track “Raping Your Mind.”
So how is it? AWESOME. I’ll be honest: I’ve never ever heard a decent-quality recording of the original Easter Bunny — only shitty-sounding bootlegs made from cassettes re-recorded from other cassettes re-recorded from yet other cassettes — so it almost feels like I’m hearing this song for the first time. I don’t know if there are higher-definition copies of Easter Bunny floating around out there or not, but I’d suspect that even if there are, only the most uptight, orthodox of purists would dislike this new version.
Says Patton of the track:
“Recording THIS music with THESE guys was an enormous head-rush of virtuosity and surprises every day in the studio. Trey’s video game-esque solos, Scott’s bionic right hand and cyborg-like precision, Dave’s caveman-meets-Bobby Brady-like drum fills, Trevor’s solid foundation and laser-focus to detail. There is nothing sweeter than getting your ass kicked by true comrades… where everyone has a singular drive and mission.”
Adds Dunn:
“Recording this record felt like we were finally utilizing our Ph.Ds in Thrash Metal. All we had to do was go back to our original professors for some additional guidance and talk them into joining us. Turns out we were A+ students. We even went for extra credit by revisiting some tunes that we’d given up on back in the day. It was less like a trip of nostalgia and more like the refining of an original, worthy document. We were haunted for 35 years by the fact that this music wasn’t given it’s due respect. Now we can die.”
You can check out the new version of “Raping Your Mind” via the below music video; for the sake of contrast, I’m gonna include a crappy-sounding version of the original recording below that. You can pre-order The Raging Wrath of the Easter Bunny Demo here in a variety of formats and packages. The track “Anarchy Up Your Anus” includes narration by Cheers star Rhea Perlman, whose husband, Danny DeVito, is a professed Mr. Bungle fan.
