Rejuvenated Mr. Bungle Puts Thrash Metal PhD to Good Use

A year ago, the avant garde metal band Mr. Bungle played its first live shows in two decades. Inspired by those performances, the band just announced it’ll release a new album, The Raging Wrath of the Easter Bunny Demo, on Oct. 30 via Ipecac Recordings.

Just as they did for the live shows, Scott Ian (Anthrax, S.O.D.) and Dave Lombardo (Dead Cross, Slayer, Suicidal Tendencies) will join original Mr. Bungle members Trevor Dunn, Mike Patton and Trey Spruance.

The 11-song release features tracks written by the Eureka, Calif.-born band for its 1986 cassette only demo as well as a reimagined cover of the S.O.D. classic “Hypocrites/Habla Español O Muere” (a.k.a. “Speak English or Die”) and Corrosion of Conformity’s “Loss For Words.” 

A video for “Raping Your Mind” is available now.

The album was produced by Mr. Bungle, recorded by Husky Höskulds at Studio 606, and mixed by Jay Ruston. Rhea Perlman narrates “Anarchy Up Your Anus.”

“Recording this music with theseguys was an enormous head-rush of virtuosity and surprises every day in the studio,” says Patton in a press release. “Trey [Spruance]’s video game-esque solos, Scott [Ian]’s bionic right hand and cyborg-like precision, Dave [Lombardo]’s caveman-meets-Bobby Brady-like drum fills, Trevor [Dunn]’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.”

Dunn agrees. “Recording this record felt like we were finally utilizing our Ph.Ds in Thrash Metal,” he says. “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.”

The Raging Wrath of the Easter Bunny Demo pre-orders are available now with the release available as a standard digipak CD and digitally as well as a collection of limited edition offerings.

Photo Eric Larsen