CONFUSATRON — Chewbacalypse Now (review)

CONFUSATRON — Chewbacalypse Now album cover

Album · 2003 · Avant-garde Metal

3/5 · 2021-02-06
siLLy puPPy

Ever since Mr Bungle dropped their three genre skipping bombs on the world in the 1990s there have been many attempts to duplicate the insanity that worked so well on those albums but more often than not (with a few notable exceptions) many attempts to recreate the magic that enveloped the Bungle universe has only resulted in making us hardcore fans realize that it’s much easier to fuck it all up than to actually create an album that works on multiple levels. While bands like Sigh, Unexpect, Diablo Swing Orchestra and Maudlin Of The Well have forged their own paths in a way that mimics the Bunglers but don’t downright copy them, many more acts have tried and failed at reaching the magnanimity of such cross-pollinating gymnastics.

Here’s yet one more band from Portland, Maine. CONFUSATRON is a bit mysterious since it’s not easy to find out when they formed but what is known is that this trio of Doug Porter (vocals, guitar), Jason LaFrance (bass) and Adam Cogswell (drums) has released two albums, the first being this 2003 debut titled CHEWBACALYPSE NOW which obviously displays a comedic approach to their shtick. As a dabbler in genre shapeshifting, CONFUSATRON runs the gamut of everything from death metal and jazz to cartoon music, ska, rockabilly, punk, funk, dance pop and pretty much everything else you would expect from an ambitious bunch of youngsters. While the idea sounds good on paper, the truth is that CONFUSATRON doesn’t quite pull off what anyone would hope to expect at least on this first release.

While the great Mr Bungle were masters of juxtaposing musical virtuosity with potty mouth humor, somehow Mike Patton and his boyz were brilliant in their ability to nurture ideas to the point of expiration and moving on. Not the case with CHEEWBACALYPSE NOW. This album seems to revolve around stylistic shifts but unfortunately milk any particular idea to the point of ennui. The opening “Turboface” for example sprawls out to a whopping 13 1/2 minutes of playing time which insinuates some kind of progressive behemoth or epic rotisserie session through the multiverse of musical ideas but in reality exists in a more punk centered world where riffs, ideas and cadences are recycled again and again. Unfortunately things don’t really improve much from there.

While not completely devoid of interesting content, CHEWBACALYPSE tries to use samples, spoken word bits, sound effects and video game sounds to pad the content but unfortunately much of the album is repetitive with lengthy loops of rather straight forward funk metal, punk rock or whatever to create rather monotonous bouts of tedium. Ugh, i so want to like this more but there are just too many irritating factors. When it comes to multi-genre juggling acts, you really have to have all your ducks in a row to pull off a stream of consciousness balancing act and on this debut album, CONFUSATRON clearly had not mastered those Jedi mind tricks quite yet. While this is an interesting mix of ideas more in the vein of Dog Fashion Disco or a more adventurous Primus, the end result just doesn’t leave me satisfied. The band only released on more album seven years later so i’ll have to check that out to hear how much they have matured. As for this, it’s OK but lacks an overarching vision that connects the sums of the part.