Tattooed Beat Messiah

Crank up this 'Best Of' CD and rock out. Flash B is on guitar, Thrash D Garbage is on bass and Slam Thunderhide is on drums if you can believe all that. It should tell you a bit. But no, wait, it doesn't, because the Jimmy Cauty of KLF fame is on guitar if you can work out what that bombshell means! But hold on for dear life anyway, because this is British hard rock with an energy and hit-to-hit rate beyond DC's 'Back in Black' and Motorhead's 'Ace of Spades'. The energy level does drop beyond the original 'Tattooed Beat Messiah'' album's 12 tracks, but no matter because the album doesn't let up whatsoever for that 37 minutes, and for at least that long, this is easily the best rock album for all tracks being great. Self parodying, tongue in cheek, intentionally chauvinistic and cliché-ridden, this is hipper, deeper and more cosmic than all the standard party metal bullshine from the mid-80s.. It is sneering, growling hard rock, drawing on two decades of metal history to create a non-stop primal rock firestorm.Zodiac Mindwarp was the brainchild of Mark Manning, one-time 'Flexipop' magazine art editor, and he fronts the band as the Planetary God and Mutant King, Zodiac. And he sounds the way you always wished Alice Cooper would have sounded. In ridiculous and ridiculously catchy lyrics, Mutant King Mindwarp claims he has 'fallen out of heaven.' Folks, if this isn't the best remaining thing out of the late '80s, or what! So those of you who don't like Zodiac Mindwarp's treatment, gerroff back to your Momma's for your knitted vest, bobble hat, mittens and scarf...

Few people have ever heard of Zodiac Mindwarp. Amazing album. Not a bad track on the album. .

This review is for the original 1988 CD release of Tattooed Beat Messiah, not the more recent expanded remaster.I remember when I purchased this album on vinyl many years ago being immediately surprised at how "digital" it sounded in comparison to my other LPs. Very bass-shy, a bit on the bright side and distinctly polished when compared to its wonderfully scuzzy forerunner, "High Priest Of Love". Back then I attributed that to the (new at the time) digital recording technologies. However, now owning the CD I notice the artwork reveals it to be AAD, which means analogue recorded and mixed. So it would seem the bass-shy brightness is just the way the album was produced. Unfortunately that's also how it was transferred to CD. There's just no low-end punch. And music like this NEEDS low-end punch. It's all high-end sheen.It doesn't help matters that the drumming sounds suspiciously like a machine...which tends to have the unfortunate effect of chaining the recordings distinctly to the 1980s rather than allowing the music to become timless.The one track which is something of an exception to the bass-shy aspect is "Born To Be Wild", a bonus track which originally appeared not on the album but as the B-side of the "Planet Girl" single. So I guess it was recorded or mixed at a different session to the main album.All of that jabbering over, what about the music?At its most basic level Tattooed Beat Messiah contains the fundamental sound and attitude of mid-1980's AC/DC, but dangerously pumped up with steriods, back-street amphetamines and copious pints of cut-price snakebite (the drink, not the venom). It could also be said to share musical similarities with Ozzy Osbourne's No Rest For Wicked, released the same year. It comes from a period which now in musical terms seems prehistoric, a time when Rock was FUN. Good old fashioned dirty fun maybe, but fun nonetheless. Lairy, irreverant, and primarily hinged around having a drunken shouty headbangery good time. Half the lyrics on this album would probably breach modern "hate crime" pseudo-laws or the latest isane/inane "no-crime crime report" guidelines. Seriously. This is the kind of thing people of a certain mindset would seek out to take take offence from. But it's all done with an overblown sense of piratical pantomime villany. Maybe of the X-rated kind, but never with malice. It's gloriously offensive. It would be very easy to take the album at face value and write it off on the basis of its completely overblown and exuberant self-loving preening and posing lyrics, but I'd argue it'd require an impressive inability to understand the nuances (and not-so nuances!) of comedy and irony to do so.It's strange to think that literally just a handful of years after this album's release that sense of unbridled Rock & Roll hedonism would be virtually eradicted from the musical landscape by the arrival of Grunge with it's inherent negativity, nihilism and introspective bleakness. Something arguably far more damaging to the individual than a bit of tongue-in-cheek cock-rock cartoon misogyny.Lyrical content aside, Tattooed Beat Messiah relentlessly pounds the listener, with just one slow song at the end of the journey. And that journey is packed with catchy hooks and choruses. It's actually a really well composed piece of musical work. They just don't write Rock albums like this any more.In conclusion I'll give Tattooed Beat Messiah 4 stars out of 5. It's really only let down by the overly shiny production and the utterly dated drum machine sound. The music itself is very comparable to some of the best offered by Rock in the late 80s. It's a real shame Zodiac and the band didn't maintain that momentum.Let's hope a new generation of Rockers one day rediscover this album (or "High Priest of Love") and scrape off a little inspiration which can they leeringly and joyously thrust into the face of the world....

Perfect , CD New and sealed , delivery in time

Brings back so many memories!! Unlike the show off that the teens listen to, ZM speak for themselves.The remaster is clearly cleaner Shame they do not tour.

Not listened to this album since it was stolen, along with my car, about 12 years ago!!!What a trip down memory lane - great album!!!

Luv it

One of the great albums of the period. Often over looked due to the self parody this album is an absolute beast. Full of huge grooves and big choruses. Such a pity more people didn't get into them.

Watching some stuff on The Cult it talked about how the bass player left ZMW to join The Cult and that put this band back on my radar. I know I liked it when I was younger and in my mind it kind of set the tone for bands like White Zombie later on. Bought this and still enjoyed it after not hearing for a long time..

Awesome album when you're in the mood. Their best except for High Priest of Love which I can only find in vinyl

j'avais cette album il y a une dizaine d"années en cassette et je suis passer au cd ,et j'ai repensais a ce groupe , content d'écouter cette album meme si je me souvenais pas qu'il y avait autant de sinthé mais dans l'ensemble bien avec des morceaux bien bourrin je conseille

Hab mir das Album in den 80'ern auf Vinyl gekauft (gab ja nix Anderes :-) ),und jetzt auf cd,um es meiner mp3 Discographie hinzu zu fügen.Das Rad wird zwar nicht neu erfunden,ist aber immernoch ein hammer Album zum abfeiern!Wer auf Rock/Hard Rock steht,sollte mal ein Ohr reinhalten,könnte sein,dass man auf eine kleine Rousie gestossen ist.Ich wünsche Euch viel Spaß mit der Scheibe.

Ok