All you really need to know is in the track listing here (Click to enlarge) :
I bought this in about 1992 or 1993, in a tiny little CD shop in New Hope, PA. I had heard of The Mentors thanks to testimony during the PMRC hearings, but had never heard a note of their music. I just knew that they were one of the most hated, disgusting bands in the world, and I'd be dipped in dogshit if I wasn't going to listen! I wasn't looking for it, but I think I audibly gasped when I saw it in the rack. For some reason, I expected them to be a punk band, it's really just standard heavy metal, as far as the music goes - not awful, but not good.
The lyrics, though, really are the true exemplar of shock rock, the flip side of the Marilyn Manson crap I reviewed yesterday. While Manson is very produced, very polished, very deliberate, this is a very raw-sounding disc in both production and musicianship. And while Manson's lyrics are menacing and dark, El Duce brought a very mundane sort of presence to The Mentors' songs of very casual violence. I don't exactly like listening to this music, but it's got a lot more power than the weak, calculated schlock Manson has produced.
It'd be easy to disregard this as garbage, and I'd certainly glance twice at someone who listened and took this stuff seriously, but it's got just as much artistic merit as anything else, even the aforementioned Marilyn Manson abortion. It's hateful, but clearly it hasn't riled me up as much as one might expect. I'll give it a D- because of a few good riffs.
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