Sirona Releases Murder The World LP

4 of the tracks from "Murder The World" are available on the free Sirona promotional LP.

Like the album? Pick up the 13 track full release.

Primus Portrays Tales Of Crustacean Class Struggle

This is Johan Ess, lead singer and lyricist for HoodooEngine, bringing you the best and newest mindstuffs floating about in the void. The new video by Primus, Tragedy's 'A Comin', gives a rather inspired take on the ravenous inequity that has been given such widespread attention lately. This type of mass obsession with the horrible condition of class issues is largely due to the #OccupyWallStreet movement going on right now, which we fully support. Anyway, back to the video. Basically, you've got their bassist/singer Les Claypool wearing a giant lobster costume on the beach in the daydream of one of the lobsters awaiting his fate in a restaurant's tank, as the privileged dine and party like there's no tomorrow. The video has an amusing climax with an astronaut riding in on a horse to devour the Claypool lobster, making me wonder if this was all just inspired by a nightmare he recently had.

Primus is no stranger to infusing class commentary into their music, with previous songs like Too Many Puppies, American Life, Welcome To This World, DMV, and of course, who could forget Those Damn Blue Collar Tweakers amongst the more obvious critical jabs of society at large. In fact, despite their reputation as a stoner's wet dream of a proggy funky slippery mud rock trio, Primus has always managed to balance their infamous alternative wackyness with a deeper set of socially conscious views. "Musically, it's upbeat," Les Claypool says, "But lyrically, the song is all about impending doom." When there's "a storm coming, the rain must fall. But to depict that would have been the cliché thing to do, so we've got lobsters."

Keeping in line with the invertebrate theme, the track Invocation from my new solo album, vltrahex, has a line that calls on listeners to "raise up your claws!" in defiance of the submission demanded by an economically obsessed society...



In much the same vein, with projects like HoodooEngine, I have always intended to convey the very palpable sense of impending doom without devolving into utter cliché. This has always been best remedied by the vigorous application of comic relief.

Whether it is referencing Grant Morrison's cancer-dimensional Archons from The Invisibles graphic series, the absurd notion of "alchemists in their fancy aether, turning their shit to gold", or the inhumanly robotic "machinations of silicon, making their way to your rear", these lyrics are designed to amuse and alter your brain chemistry...


If you like that last track, be sure to get our new album that just came out, Murder The World.

Murder The World officially released in digital format

Have at it you lunatics! Hilarious ultraviolence in musical form.

The CD version will be available soon, for an equally reasonable price. If you'd like to know more about the process behind the scenes (we worked on this album for 3 years), explore this site more.

Thanks to everyone that worked so hard on this project.

"Murder The World" in the studio

HoodooEngine is a musical jihad against corporate thoughtforms. We’ll use their tools against them, and drink tequila as the old guard crumbles and topples from its own weight.

As we were in the studio preparing our second album, "Murder The World," James also brought around his hand recorder and chronicled our descent into madness, including some of the tracks in progress as they were at that point (you can hear the finals now on the album). This is it- a 2 part podcast series completely unlike any other podcast you've ever heard.

These recording sessions were a taxing process that involves copious amounts of drugs and self-abuse, so bear with us and check out the album when it’s released as CD if we don’t all OD on cough syrup and fermented yak semen, or invoke a wrathful demon that replaces all of our bodily fluids with nutella.

And of course, the album "Murder The World" digital album: now waiting for final master but already available:

Would You Fuck Me? I'd Fuck Me

What's we been up to, you ask? Here's a little taste...




I'm leaking this little "B" side for you for labor day or some shit.

If you don't "get it" let me help refresh your memory. (I know drug abuse is hell on recall.)


You can thank Clark for the phone call you can hear in this track. And yes, he really was on the line with the hospital, asking to have his dick removed. A MAN HAS NEEDS, OK?

Last but not least... Here our some of our recent band photos. Don't we look purdy?

Hartman (Leads on "Drawing The Void.")

James (Rhythm, bass)

Johan (vocals)

Marz (fascist dictator)

Clark (hand percussion, inspirational OD's)

Now go and pay 5 measly bucks for an album that'll blow the speakers out of your car, will you?

Sirona Records "Signs" EgoWhore

Sirona Records picked up an LP version of EgoWhore for free distribution. You can now check out 5 of those tracks under a creative commons license here.

DJs, podcasters, all of you should feel free to spin and use our stuff with impunity so long as you credit it within the broadcast.

The follow-up, "Murder The World," is both more extreme and far more genre-breaking than EgoWhore, so we all hope you check that out as well. ($5 gets you 8 pre-masters now, and all 13 tracks the moment the masters are released.)

Party At The World's End Video Trailer Featuring HoodooEngine

New trailer for Fallen Nation: Party At The World's End





Music "Nothing Is Sacred" from HoodooEngine's album Murder The World.

Video/motion and some still work by Daniel Warwick, other still visuals by James Curcio,
rest of the credits at the end of the video. Enjoy, and show your support by picking up a copy!

"You're Playing Too Many Notes, James" (Behind the Scenes)

Marz233 (and Beaker)

Now that $5 Pre-orders have been announced * and we are moving into mastering, I wanted to give some of you a brief look behind the scenes at the 2 years we've put into Murder The World. (It just dawned on me that we actually started writing some of the songs for this album more than 3 years ago. Bloody hell.)

First, the nuts and bolts. Most of these songs began with Marz233 laying down a basic structure. I would then track bass and rhythm guitar along with that, and we'd add percussion, either from Iron Will and I or V-Drums. Then we did a round-robin with Scott Landes and The Illumanist laying down leads, Johan layering on vocals - and more layers of vocals - and synths, and more synths. The only exception to this process was Psychic Seige, which I wrote most of the parts for first on guitar over a drum loop, and then we built the song around that.

During tracking, this was pretty much what you could expect to hear between Marz233 and I:

Marz: "That chord sounds weird."
Me: "I added a 9th to it to give an other-worldly quality."
Marz: "What the hell?"
Me: "How did you write this part?"
Marz: "It sounds good, right?"
Me: "Yeah. It sounds really evil. But these chords have no tonal relation with each other that makes sense on planet Earth. It's all from Neptune."
Marz: "Smoke this and you'll be from Neptune too. Fuck, hold on. You're playing too many notes, James."
Beaker: "RAAAAAAAAAAWK!"
Me: "Too many notes?"
Marz: "SHUT UP BEAKER. Yes. Play less of them."
Me: "But that's the tonic of the-"
Marz: "I don't care what it is. Play less notes."

Iron Will. Always the kidder. 

Of course, the exact words are made up, but this is very much like a conversation that we had back and forth throughout the tracking of rhythm guitars.

There's an element to this album that was secretly pretty serious for all of us. It was a channel for a lot of frustration, a punching bag that you could hit again and again without anyone telling you that maybe you should try out some Prozac. But we had a lot of fun, too. Throughout recording, we fucked around with each other a lot. There were moments where I'm sure all of us wanted to strangle each other, but even more than that, I already remember it as one of the most fun projects I've had a chance to work on. We goofed off constantly in a way that I don't think you get with most creative teams- I mean, on one occasion they got me to drink whiskey ceremonially out of a human skullcap, and another time they almost got me to smoke human brain. (There is more to this story, of course.)

I also wandered around constantly at that time with a hand-held recorder, so as a result, you can listen to some of our goofing around that at times almost reaches the level of art, but more often is incredibly juvenile and still makes me laugh my ass off. At times it felt like we were living inside an episode of Metalocalypse. If so, I'm not sure which one of us would be Pickles.

Hartman, rocking out.
(He did the main guitars
for "Drawing The Void".)

Now that the album is moving into mastering, we are also moving on to different things- Scott is prepping for a massive uber-tour with several bands (I believe Mankind is Obsolete, Android Lust, I'm not sure off the top of my head of the rest), Marz is in the wilds of Pensyltucky cranking out electronic music, Johan is studying physics and getting back to some of his own material, I'm getting a bunch of books ready for publication, and Iron Will is roaming India.

Hopefully this team will be unified for another project in the future. If not, either way- it's been real, guys.

-JC

*For $5 now you get 8 of the premasters as high res mp3s, and then the entire 13 track album the moment it is mastered. 

Preview Murder The World

You should be able to pre-order on Bandcamp as well. Kick ass! It's going into mastering now at Bob Idakaar's studio -- tubes should lend some nice warmth. We're hoping for a final release in September, though it might be slightly after.

Check out this interview if you're new to our music and want to know a bit about us.

solipsistic NATION - Tim Skold Ogre Karsh Kale and Hoodoo Engine

Pre-order "Murder The World" right now! Only $5.

From Solipsistic Nation:

Listen to the Interview now! (Download/direct link)

In the last couple of weeks I learned that Karsh Kale, Tim Sköld, Nivek Ogre and HoodooEngine had released or were about to release new albums. I dig them all so I do what I do sent out the emails and made the phone calls. 

I discovered Karsh Kale right about the same time I discovered the Asian Massive (or Asian Underground) scene. Over the years I watched the careers of Karsh Kale, Asian Dub Foundation and others grow over the years and it’s a wonder that I haven’t had someone like Karsh on the show earlier. Karsh has released six albums and recorded and performed with everyone from Zakir Hussain to Yoko Ono. Karsh’s latest album,Cinema, is his most ambitious album to date. It’s big, bold and melodramatic, and Karsh’s experience scoring films has had an impact on the scope of Cinema.
Tim Sköld was another surprise! Before I knew it, one night after work I found myself in front of a microphone talking to Tim about his long career, from his rock roots in bands like Kingpin and Shotgun Messiah and then later playing with the likes of KMFDM and Marilyn Manson. Tim also released a solo album back in 1996 and 15 years later he’s followed it up with Anomie, due out May 10th. Tim was great to talk with and I found that he’s as much an agent provocateur in person as he is in his music. I also had some great questions to ask him from folks like Jeremy and Royb0t from Twitter and Facebook.
Ogre’s is set to release a second album with ohGr called unDeveloped that also due to be released May 10th. Ogre and Skinny Puppy have scored the post apocalyptic soundtrack to our lives for nearly 30 years. While Skinny Puppy was my introduction into industrial music, there’s industrial music and then there’s Skinny Puppy. They’re in their own category and to call them industrial is kind of limiting. I was curious to see what directions Ogre would explore through ohGr and to be honest, I didn’t like unDeveloped at first. As Ogre mentions during our chat, people rarely give music full attention because they’re usually multitasking while they’re listening to music. I was doing the same thing with unDeveloped but one night while I was going out for a run I listened to unDeveloped and without being aware of it I found myself lost in the album and now I think it’s one of my favorite album of 2011.

Hoodoo Engine Primary Members
(Not pictured: Iron Will, Scott Landes, & The Illuminist)

Once I finally realized that Tim and Ogre were going to be guests on this week’s show I knew I had to include Hoodoo Engine. I’ve wanted to play tracks from their EgoWhore album since it was released in 2010 but it was just one of those scheduling things. Hoodoo Engine would be perfect for today’s show and to top it off, they’re gearing up to release their new album, Murder the World, and it’s more wretched and evil than EgoWhore, if such a thing is even possible. The core of Hoodoo Engine is Marz233, James Curcio and Johan Ess. Just to be above board, both James and I are on the Alterati Network, but I’ve known James long before Alterati when I interviewed him about his book, Join My Cult. While you anxiously wait for the release of Murder the World you can watch Clark, a gonzo mockumentary reality show art film surrounding the struggles of an independent artist in a capitalist world. 

Listen to the Interview now!

(Direct download) 

In The Flesh: For Murder The World

As you know, if you've been following our site, we are still hard at work on our album Murder The World. All going well, we should be hitting the final mastering sometime this summer.

We have an interview that we should be dropping on you any...week...now with Solipsistic Nation, in the same show where you can catch some new updates from Ogre (Skinny Puppy) and Tim Skold (KMFDM, Marilyn Manson). We can't promise you won't catch some kind of aural disease from putting all of us in your ear holes. Just saying - we did warn you, and we can't be held legally responsible. It should be a hell of a show.

But in the meantime, here's one of the tracks - pre master and final mix - from the album. We're super cereal guys. 

InTheFlesh 150bpm by agent139

Studio work: A look under the hood

Here is a look under the hood of the hoodooengine locomotive. ("Hey, locomotives don't have hoods." "Shut up already.")

We've been working on this album for quite some time, and hope to have it in mastering by this summer.

Enjoy the music. These are low bit-rate versions, but should give you an idea of our acoustic and unholy fury. Tell your friends, and make sure to draw that circle of salt around yourself before listening. (Or take off your shirt. It has the same effect.)

ControlFreak 160bpm by agent139

HoodooEngine in Carpe Nocturne Magazine

In the midst of engineering their next epic and sweaty album, HoodooEngine brings heavy words of doom to the masses through a feature in the Spring 2011 Carpe Nocturne Magazine, as follows...

HOODOOENGINE CONJURES DEMONS IN YOUR LIVING ROOM
WITH THEIR UPCOMING RELEASE: “MURDER THE WORLD”

It has only been a matter of months since our strange conglomeration of dubious characters, HoodooEngine, mercilessly ejaculated its first stream of tracks upon the world in the form of EgoWhore. We are only now preparing to open the 9th gate for our next release with the material we've been working on since 2008: Murder The World. Oddly enough, the material for our near-complete second album began over a year before we joined forces to put out our first release as HoodooEngine.

As the title might imply, Murder The World is an incredibly dark trip, one might even say a completely nihilistic one. When we first started working on it, we were deep “under cover” in several corporations, and so maybe you could say the demons we were trying to exorcise (or invoke? I can't tell anymore) were the Corporate egregores that dominate the planet. And if you don't know what that means, don't worry. You will soon enough.

Some of that nihilism comes through the music, and certainly we got to have fun digging into some more intricate metal riffs than we did on EgoWhore. But it comes through most clearly in the lyrics. Acting with our loose guidance, Johan has been channeling some truly horrifying, and dare I say obscure magic. Occultists will probably feel like it's Christmas morning, and all their presents are being handed out by voluptuous green-eyed succubi. But non-Occultists can enjoy it just as much. I mean the flip side is: How many people listen to lyrics these days, right? So you can rock along to the music and have no idea that you're helping us conjure demons that will devour the dominant paradigm in their massive, hungry maws. That's fine. Sing along, kids. Sing along. Master will be pleased.

Seriously though, we think Murder The World will be an experience that twists your mind through the morbid annals of an unholy ultimate destiny. EgoWhore is something you can dance to while starting a revolution and decimating zombies. It has a point, but heavy as it is, it's still a bit more lighthearted than Murder The World, especially with tracks like “Hoodoo Luv” that have prominent crunk chants. EgoWhore is a non-stop progression of hooks and anthems. There's a strong pop structure underlying the album, despite how it doesn't sound too much like pop on the surface. (Thus the title, among other traits.)

A few of the tracks on Murder The World hearken back to that, so we can keep the Gucci Goths happy. But other tracks, like “Drawing The Void” would just melt people's face off on the dance floor. And we all liked Raiders of the Lost Ark but who wants to have their face melted off when dancing? So blast it in your car, on your headphones, or at home on your ridiculously expensive audiophile soundsystem while having rough sex, but for the love of everything unholy, wear the proper protective gear. It might not be a bad idea to draw a circle around yourself, purify your chakras, or at least take a salt bath after listening. Or you know, don't...

We’d also like to point out that while there haven’t been any confirmed injuries from enjoying our music, that doesn’t it can’t happen. Oh, and also be sure not to take us too seriously. Banish with laughter.

Check out www.hoodooengine.com for music, releases, and interviews. We especially suggest you look into the podcast that we released with Alterati.com if you want a glimpse at the insanity we conjured up in our basement studio while working on this material. 

Occult Method and Ritual in Performance

Admittedly not strictly a HoodooEngine project, but this is a project some of us are working on that you'll likely enjoy, if you are weird enough to nom what HE is cooking. A post on the Gonzomentary site about the "Occult Method and Ritual in Acting":

"...That's basic method. Here's where you can take it a step further. Through embodying things that you may despise, or things that other people project on you, you can engage what Carl Jung called the "shadow self," and transmute them into something else. Let me mix some metaphors. The impulses and parts of yourself that you turn your back on, the fears other people project on you, take on a hidden life. But you can eat them alive..." 

English Language version of interview for Dark Entries webzine

English Language version of interview for Dark Entries webzine.
(Read their review here. It's in Dutch.)

Can you please tell us who Hoodoo Engine are?

Marz233

Marz233: Murder The World was a big “fuck you” to all the awful corporate entities that we were working for at the time. A way to blow off steam while attempting to merge our past and present influences into one giant ironic cluster fuck. HoodooEngine was at first a separate project consisting of a lot of material I was writing that was composed of synthetic elements... Influenced mainly by electro-rooted hybrids of various styles. A large amount of the material just naturally meshed together, I think, and wound up becoming one project.

Frater Gazebo (JC)

James Curcio: In the process we brought in Johan Ess, who helped bring a conceptual focus through vocals and lyrics. There were some other collaborators on EgoWhore, though the more extensive collaboration has been saved for the follow-up, which we're now calling Murder The World. See how that worked? It's like the two projects had sex when we weren't looking, and got fused together.

Those additional collaborators were Jeff Hartman and Scott Landes laying down additional guitar material, again, especially for Murder The World. I have collaborated on and off with Scott Landes for years. He plays most frequently these days with Mankind is Obsolete and Collide. We also got additional percussion from Iron Will.

So far this has primarily been a studio project. Marz233 is the engineer. I can almost imagine him in an old style locomotive engineer’s outfit while working on the tracks, though I’ve yet to actually get him one. Maybe for his birthday.

Johan Ess

Johan Ess: ...and if Sean won't wear the train conductor's outfit, I definitely will!



Where does the name come from?

JC: It was kind of slang, meaning haunted or ghost train. EgoWhore has a lot of references on it to that. The first two tracks are dedicated to it, "Psychoactive Paranormal Locomotive Drive!" And the cover art, of course.

M233: A hoodoo engine was a term coined around the turn of the century to describe a steam engine that was cursed. So any engine that broke down quite often or took the lives of many railroad workers would be nicknamed a Hoodoo. Basically, a train built to fail. It was also as James said attributed to ghost train sightings.

Johan practicing his "Farcical mating call."

JE: I always thought it was a somewhat veiled metaphor for sex magick, of which we are all fans of in some capacity or another. This is expanded upon to an absurd degree in the track "Hoodoo Luv", something of a farcical mating call to real and imagined groupies. Lots of fun with tripe occult rock star imagery.

JC: So far I haven’t gotten laid once because of that damn song, either.

I understood you did everything in a totally DIY-way. Please explain.

JC: For a while I was a part of a group of musicians and producers that banded together in New york, and we had a pretty large co-owned studio. Marz233 had his own shared studio down here. Over time those spaces became financially unfeasible but the upside is that gear has also gotten considerably more portable. I have v-drums, a modeling amp and of course tons of modeling VST effects, Marz has controllers and his
laptop and whatnot. Aside from Will’s hand drums and Johan’s vocal chords everything is “virtual.” There’s really no need for a 13,000 square foot studio for a project like this. Though it is sure fun to have space like that to run around and be loud in at 3 in the morning. Maybe eventually we can make virtual musicians that live on virtual coffee. Less overhead.

Iron Will

JE: Since we do both the music and production all ourselves, you're hearing the true character of our band. Unfiltered for the most part, except for audio filters of course.

M233: Also, we don't have much of a choice but to DIY. Who else is going to do it?

I guess it must make you laugh with bands who lock themselves up in the most
expensive studios...

JC: We’d probably rather use that budget for recreation.

M233: Hey, if I had the cash to do it I would pay for some of those expensive studios just to acquire access to a large array of tube-driven outboard gear, and it would be nice for once to mix and record in a space that is specifically designed for it. A new computer is an unfortunate necessity.

Any other plans for the band?

JC practicing, with foreground inspiration.

JC: We definitely want to wrap up Murder The World. EgoWhore was a bit of an homage to a number of acts, though it was also a means of exploring the possibilities of our own sound with this arrangement of people. But Murder The World is more  progressive, and by that I mean that we’re moving forward a little bit from the sound of the first album. Not that we’re fighting giant silver dragons in 9/8 time. Though I guess
that’d be cool, too.

Beyond that, I’d like to hear yet more club play and maybe something can coax us into putting this thing into production for live performance. We’re all perfectionists though, so I kind of have an attitude like, if you’re going to do it do it right. There are a lot of demands there and precious few rewards, which is why we’re not all crammed in a van together at this very moment. But we’ll see.

M233: I'll keep writing. I'm not sure what else I would do. So it all depends on what I'm writing, and if the rest of the crew are down with mixing their secreted musical juices into it, then yes we will endure.

I guess you agree you play Industrial Metal which links you to KMFDM, Combichrist or Die Krupps or so on. Were those bands an example to you?

Marz233, thinking about "ending it all."

JC: I think it would be different for each of us who we list, and it might even be different on different days. Some of them may be surprising too, like Marz233 was trying to bring some elements of crunk and hardcore to what we’re doing. But yeah, KMFDM, Ministry and Chemlab were all bands we listened to in high school or whatever and like I said there was a definite “homage” element to EgoWhore. But I can’t say there was a
conscious decision to sound like anything. At least not on my part.

JE: Along with the industrial and metal mainstays in my musical appetite, I draw a lot of inspiration from the digi-grind scene with vocals, although my voice is probably a lot more intelligible than what you typically hear in that scene. Being greatly under the influence of fine electronic music, this fuels the synth parts I contribute. The rest of my inspiration is mostly drawn from the bleak conditions of existence, along with unhealthy mental processes caused by imbibing too much Neurocrunk #9.

JC: I’ve also not been sober since 1995. That’s been a huge inspiration.

JC and Scott Landes recording an earlier project. (2003)

Your album is called "Egowhore", who's an egowhore then?

JC: Someone who’s sense of self worth is a fabricated hall of mirrors, like the Wizard of Oz. It also just seemed like a funny thing to title a debut.

JE: Anyone willing to compromise on their principles for a chance at recognition. Pretty much the premise of the entire entertainment industry these days.

How are the reactions in your country so far?

JC: People seem to be enjoying it. You know, you get that occasional reaction where someone heard your music and you can’t for the life of you figure out the route it took to get to their ears. I enjoy it when that happens. But I’m probably better known personally for my writing - that gets me more lunatic calls at 3 in the morning. I really need to change my number.

M233: I'm not sure I try not to leave my cave. Nah, seriously we've had some mixed reviews, but overall the feedback has been surprisingly positive.

JE: I think its hilarious when people think we're completely serious, because one of the main points of our first record was to have fun with stereotypes in this genre.

I know it must be far too early, but is there talk about doing something on European ground?

JC: That depends entirely on reaction. If this was 1997, and we still believed in the Myth of the Industry, we’d probably be pedaling our asses all over town to line that up. Now it’s a situation where you need to build the vehicle from scratch and then if you’re lucky, someone buys the gas for you. Figuratively speaking. What would be even better, to my mind, is to hear that it’s getting more play abroad in clubs and whatnot. I just want the music to find the people that enjoy it.

M233: I would love to visit Europe, Great Britain and the Netherlands especially, but that may not be for a while unfortunately.

I guess I can tell your music is one of extremes, do you see yourself as "extreme guys"?

Extreme, like Neil Patrick Harris.

JC: I don’t know about the other guys, but I’m extreme like Neil Patrick Harris.

M233: I'm not happy until the walls are bleeding shit and colors!

JE: There are aspects of myself which could be considered extreme depending on who you ask. I am not willing to do things like eat pebbles off the ground and randomly light my hair on fire, but would certainly not be against having my entire body saran-wrapped, blasting our record from a monster truck in midday traffic while doing interpretive dancing on the roof.

JC: He really does that stuff. Don’t test him.

Do you believe in the holy trinity that sex, drugs and rock is or is there more...

JC: There’s more to life, but it’s certainly a good foundation.

These questions I always ask: what’s your fave record of all time and please tell me why!

JC: I honestly don’t know. I’m not being glib. It just really depends on my mood. But I will say that the most recent thing I listened to was Mr Bungle, and they remain one of the better acts I’ve seen live.

JC on V-Drums

JE: Musick to Play in the Dark by Coil is probably my all time favorite music. If you haven't heard it, just listen (in the dark obviously) and you'll see why. Much of their work instantly creates a sense of ritual space, which I enjoy immensely. "Wise words from the departing... eat your greens, especially Broccoli." Rest in peace, Jhon and Sleazy.

M233: Yeah, that's a tough one. I guess it depends on when you catch me. I can say that my major influences for HoodooEngine would have to be Agnostic Front, Butthole Surfers, MDFMK, Bone Crusher and Azax Syndrome.

With who wouldn’t you mind to be alone with in an elevator for 8 hours and what would you do then?

JC: The real answer to this question involves girls you’ve never met. But I do think it’d be pretty edifying and entertaining to be stuck in an elevator for eight hours with James Maynard Keenan. I imagine he’d wonder who the fuck we were and why he was stuck in the elevator with us, Marz’s eclectus parrot would make awful noises, and we could all stare awkwardly into each other’s eyes.

JE: We could even take turns singing our songs in accapella, parrot included. It would be a very satisfying experience for everyone.

M233: I don't think anyone wants to be stuck in an elevator with Beaker, he's a fucking menace!

Pick up EgoWhore on digital or CD format. 

Chain DLK

They're right- Murder The World is going to push some new boundaries.

'Egowhore' is Hoodooengine's debut album and Hoodooengine is self-described as being spawned by the twisted masterminds of Marz233, James Curcio and Johan Ess, also featuring the creative work of Scott Landes, (Mankind is Obsolete & Collide), Jeff Hartman and William Clark. What we have here is an industrial metal outfit that reminded me somewhat of early Electric Hellfire Club, and a bout a half-dozen other bands, including one I recently reviewed called Everything Goes Cold. Still, it is competently produced, especially for a D-I-Y project done mostly on a Macbook Pro. 

On the musical side, a lot of work has been put into the production to keep it inventive, energetic and engaging. Guitar is very good, drum (programming I assume) is powerful, elaborate and effective, and the electronics are varied and well-used. Dialogue samples are kept to a minimum, which is a big plus in my book. The songwriting is okay (you're [sic] typical dystopian themes), although there weren't any obvious standout 'hits,' but that's not a major drawback for this kind of music. On the vocal side, things are a bit bland. The lead vocal sounds monotonous over time, and I found myself looking forward to the odd vocal interjections (that comes from other voices, I presume) that surfaced sporadically. One the plus side, the lyrics are intelligible (and generally intelligent), and although some processing is used on the vocals (including the occasional vocoder), it's not the usual overused distorted mess that so many bands in the electro-industrial metal genre seem to dote on. (If I had my druthers, I'd take intelligible over stark-raving raspy-distoro. [sic])

Still, there is so much going on in 'Egowhore' you may not be paying a whole lot of attention to the vocals. The sheer power of some of the 9 tracks on this under 38 minute album is apt to blow you away, at least instrumentally. If you like bands like Die Krupps, Orgy, KMFDM, Electric Hellfire Club, etc., you might enjoy this. I do think Hoodooengine needs to step up their vocal game though. A vocalist with more power and presence would prove helpful; maybe even a female vocalist to add some contrast. They've got another release slated for early 2011. I'd be interested in checking out the band's progress on that one. (Chain DLK review.)