Dopes to Infinity
| Dopes to Infinity | ||||
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| Studio album by Monster Magnet | ||||
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Publication |
February 6, 1995 (Germany) |
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admission |
1994 |
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| Label (s) | AT THE | |||
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Format (s) |
CD, LP |
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Title (number) |
12 |
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running time |
62:26 |
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| occupation |
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Dave Wyndorf, Steve Rosenthal |
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Studio (s) |
The Magic Shop, New York City |
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Dopes to Infinity is the third studio album by the US rock band Monster Magnet . It was published by A&M in February 1995 and is considered more accessible than the previous ones. At the same time it was the first major chart success for the band and contained a successful single, Negasonic Teenage Warhead , whose associated, elaborately produced video was also played on MTV .
Origin and style of music
After the rather moderate success of Superjudge and an almost one year break, singer Dave Wyndorf initially had a bit of difficulty with songwriting and only had to be asked to do so by the responsible A&R employee of the record company A&M in early 1994 . The band invested significantly more effort than before in the record. This was also due to the fact that the record company - after the success of Alternative Rock in general and Nirvana in particular in the early 1990s - was ready to invest more in the band than before. Wyndorf wrote the songs almost exclusively. Pieces by guitarist Ed Mundell, heavily influenced by Robin Trower at the time , were rejected by Wyndorf. The aim of the band was to make the record sound better than Superjudge , which Mundell subsequently described as a "good demo " in terms of production .
As a studio was The Magic Shop in New York City selected; In spite of the increased funds, one could not afford anything bigger. Wyndorf took over the production together with the owner of the studio, Steve Rosenthal, himself. The band had approached various producers, a little under time pressure, whose ideas did not coincide with those of the band, as they did not have a copy of Pearl Jam or the Black Crowes wanted to be. Rather, she wanted her own style to be respected. More important than Rosenthal for the production was sound engineer Joe Warda, who had excellent hearing and urged the band to play closely. Drummer Joe Kleiman said Warda had Pro Tools - not yet widely used at the time - "on his head". The record was recorded analogously. In contrast to previous albums, the songs were worked out precisely before the studio stay, the band rehearsed between five and eight hours a day. Negasonic Teenage Warhead was one of the first finished pieces. It was written by Wyndorf expressly as a commercial piece for the soundtrack of the film So Fucking What and a previous version appeared in the fall of 1994. Ego the Living Planet and the title track were finished just before the recordings. They were written in Drop C tuning, as it "like Black Sabbath sound." Before the creation of these two pieces, the heart of the record should be King of Mars . Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin were also inspirations for the instrumentation. A mellotron was obtained at short notice , and a theremin was also used. A sitar , strings and acoustic guitars were used. Ur-singer and -Schlagzeuger Tim Cronin, otherwise mostly responsible for the moral support of the band, took a drum part at Ego the Living Planet .
According to a later statement by the band, cannabis consumption - although quite common on tour - did not play a role in the creation, but Wyndorf did allow alcohol, while Mundell and Kleiman often consumed pills like Xanax . The problem with the recording was that bassist Joe Calandra had relationship problems and at the same time feared he had cancer and was therefore unable to play the songs correctly. Wyndorf informed him after a while that Kleiman and mainly guitarist Mundell would play the bass lines for most of the songs. Kleiman in particular was critical of Wyndorf's controlling nature. He disliked, for example, the picture on the back of the album, which shows Dave Wyndorf's face in close-up, whereas all other band members had to play dead. The title of the record was initially rejected by the other band members. Wyndorf originally wanted to name the album Sluts to Infinity or Cunt Circus , but with this he encountered much greater opposition from his bandmates.
Texts
Dave Wyndorf, who wrote the lyrics, mostly used metaphors . According to him, the meanings of the songs are mostly "down to earth", but also contain "secret messages", hidden messages that he could not write openly:
"I write with my heart, and if something sounds to boring or normal, I'll just change the metaphors around until it sounds cool."
"I write with my heart and if something sounds too boring or normal, I change the metaphors until it sounds cool"
reception
The reviews for the album have been positive. At Allmusic , Ned Ragget described the guitars as significantly more powerful and epic compared to Superjudge , and the additional instruments also made sense. He awarded four out of five stars. In Rock Hard , Hanno Kress drew the top grade ten. The record expresses “endless expanses”, “in which the fans can get lost.” The album is a “psychedelic masterpiece of new hard rock.” In the intro , Dopes to Infinity was certified as having “understandable hooks and pounding, fat grooves ” give "no fillers". In Visions , Volker Banasiak saw the album “musically much more structured and tidy than its predecessors”. Occasional “gigantomania” was criticized, but overall one heard “Wyndorf at his best”.
Track list
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Chart positions Explanation of the data |
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- Dopes to Infinity - 5:43
- Negasonic Teenage Warhead - 4:28
- Look to Your Orb for the Warning - 6:32
- All Friends and Kingdom Come - 5:38
- Ego, the Living Planet - 5:07
- Blow 'Em Off - 3:51
- Third Alternative - 8:33
- I Control, I Fly (Kleiman / Wyndorf) - 3:18
- King of Mars - 4:33
- Dead Christmas - 3:54
- Theme from 'Masterburner' (Calandra / Wyndorf) - 5:06
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Vertigo - 5:41
The CD contains by Vertigo after a two-minute break, a hidden track with a playing time of 3'34 ".
All pieces were written by Dave Wyndorf unless otherwise noted.
swell
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k J. Bennett: Masterburner & the Infinite Badness , in: Albert Mudrian (Ed.): Precious Metal. Decibel presents the story behind 25 Extreme Metal masterpieces , Cambridge, Mass., 2009, pp. 223-236, ISBN 978-0-306-81806-6
- ^ Marcus Schleutermann: The Mighty Bullgod Is Back , in: Rock Hard, No. 93, February 1995, pp. 12-14.
- ↑ www.allmusic.com: Dopes to Infinity review by Ned Raggett
- ↑ www.rockhard.de: Dopes to Infinity review by Hanno Kress ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ www.intro.de: Review Dopes to Infinity ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ www.visions.de: Dopes to Infinity review by Volker Banasiak
- ↑ Charts DE Charts UK
- ↑ CD with EAN 731454031523. Running time track 12: 11'15 ″
Web links
- Dopes to Infinity at Allmusic (English)