MEPHISKAPHELES

GOD BLESS SATAN

  1/  Mephiskapheles                             (Mephiskapheles)              4.57
  2/  Satanic Debris                             (Cherry,Nightmare)            4.16
  3/  Bad John                                   (Tween,Nightmare)             3.24
  4/  Centre of the...                           (Reich,UP,Nightmare)	       2.50
  5/  Hard Times                                 (McCabe,Nightmare)            3.24
  6/  Doomsday                                   (Tween,Nightmare)             3.15
  7/  Rank & File                                (Reich,Martin)                2.05
  8/  Eskamo                                     (Reich,Martin,Doris)          4.01
  9/  Saba                                       (Tween,Satan)                 5.59
  10/ The Ballad of Admiral Stockdale            (Robinson)                    2.40
  11/ Dance Me Not                               (Cherry,Nightmare)            4.01
  12/ Finnigan Froth                             (Martin)                      2.12
  13/ The Bumble Bee Tuna Song                   (Nightmare,D’Debil)           5.29

          Recorded at Avalon Studios, Little Neck, Queens, New York
          Engineer: Bob Stander
          Mix engineer: Robert Musso at Greenpoint Studio, New York
          Produced by Bill Laswell and Bob Musso
          Associate Producer: Tracy McKnight
          Mastered by Howie Weinberg at Masterdisk, New York
The Nubian Nightmare: lead vocal; Brendog: the guitarist; Mikal "The Virgin" Reich: the drummerist; "Underpants" Martin: the organist; Alexander McCabe: the organist; Osho "Hollywood" Endo: the trumpet/ flugal hornest; Greg Robinson: the trombonist; Michael Bitz: the upright bassist.

          1994 - Pass the Virgin/Moon Records (USA), MR666 (CD)

REVIEWS :

The members of Mephiskapheles consider themselves to be the world's only Satanic ska band -- an assertion that is amply reinforced by their first full-length release, "God Bless Satan". The cover of the disc's liner notes features a remarkably evil-looking chicken and its last page shows some guy named Chris apparently copulating with an inflatable plastic goat (or is that a sheep?). Frankly, it's difficult to determine how much of the group's fiendish rhetoric is morality and how much is marketing, but putting the dogma aside, Mephiskapheles is one fine ska band! The group combines members of the short-lived hardcore/ska band the Skatterbrains with a horn section made up of classically/jazz trained wind players. The fact that the horn players know how to play ranks Mephiskapheles higher on the musicianship scale than your average garage-ska band and makes for depth and sophistication that is not common to the genre.

NW (courtesy of the Splendid Ezine website)

..................................................

It was bound to happen. Satanic ska may not be the most prevalent of musical styles, but darn it if it shouldn't be. Granted, Mephiskapheles have firmly planted their collective forked tongues in cheek, but they are a more than competent ska band with a handfull of pretty darned good songs. Generally their ska is a bit slower paced than a lot of the punk-ska types with a generous supply of horns. Their sense of melody and catchiness is firmly intact, especially in the sock-hoppin' "Rank & File" or the apocalyptic "Doomsday". Moreover, you know there is humor at work with a song title such as "The Ballad of Admiral Stockdale", an instrumental paying homage to Ross Perot's bizarre 1992 choice for a running mate in the presidential election. As with a lot of ska albums, the fun starts to wear a bit thin by album's end and Mephiskapheles run into that problem. However, the general good feel, hilarious imagery of evilness, and overall catchiness of a lot of these songs make God Bless Satan a pretty good time. [1/00]

John Chedsey (courtesy of Satan Stole My Teddybear website)