Purgatory Dance Party
Purgatory Dance Party by Polkadot Cadaver is one truly macabre CD. I have to admit, I have never heard songs which dealt with horrific topics presented as beautifully and nonchalant as these. Polkadot Cadaver uses a mix of heavy metal, emo, pop, and industrial dance music to create a twisted, dark and scary mood. The listener is gently dipped into this well of bad dreams with a poppy introductory of a song called "Haunted Holiday". With, sleigh bells keeping the rhythm going, Todd Smith on vocals sounds quite a bit like John Lennon on this song.
"A Wolf in Jesus Skin" follows. This song wafts between sounding like Oingo Boingo, to sounding like Marilyn Manson. I would say the cut on Purgatory Dance Party most likely to obtain hit-status on the hard rock stations, would be "Phantom Limb". Many qualities of this selection align with those executed by the band, System of a Down. Teases of calliope and ice cream truck music are speckled amongst some pretty hard core beats. "Phantom Limb", along with "Long Strange Trip to Paradise" are definitely worthy of downloading.
The track I really want to discuss. is "Chloroform Girl". Don't let this track fool you. "Chloroform Girl" is an ode to an unfortunate girl who is bound, gagged, and chained up in a basement somewhere. Sung from the perspective of the abductor, this track gets extra kudos for elaborate creep-factor. Most of us have heard the story about Charles Manson hanging out with the Beach Boys, all the while, trying to break into the music biz. This song is what possibly could have been the product of a collaboration between Jame Gumb a.k.a. Buffalo Bill (Silence of the Lambs), and Seventies icons, the Monkees. "Chloroform Girl" is a beautiful song, yet very disturbing. The more I listen to it, the worse I feel. In fact, that goes along with the entire CD. After every listen, I have needed to play an antidote CD, to clear my head.
The last track, titled "Sole Survivor" is quite a slow, mellow, somber song, intermittently peppered with heavy attacks. The track length is listed as Thirty-two minutes and thirty-six seconds. Ending after four and a half minutes the listener is treated with about six minutes of silence before a twenty minute bombardment of 'Satan' repeated over and over, and over.
I do recognize the craftsmanship that went into creating this CD. It is quite good, but, I have to repeat what I wrote earlier. After every listen to Purgatory Dance Party, I really do need to play some kind of antidote CD just to clear my head, It's definitely not for everybody.
