I’ve made no secret of my long-standing adoration of Mighty Sphincter. The result of a conglomeration of older Arizona punkers getting together to take the piss out of 1980s punk rock, their early efforts sounded like a more musically sophisticated and sonically bombastic strip-mining of the same horror film schlock that gave the earliest incarnations of Christian Death their edge. Rather than merely wax poetic and dabble in cheap parlor heresy, Mighty Sphincter opted to delve into full-blown blasphemy, perversion, and shock lyrics with enough virulence to outrage the average uptight, homophobic hardcore kid and enough humor to keep those smart enough to figure out who the joke was on (and considering their singer had horns glued to his head, it wasn’t too hard to figure out they were having fun at others’ expense), smiling from ear to ear. Eventually, they dropped the shock tactics and headed down a more traditional gothic metal road, though they still managed to make that trip as bumpy as possible before disappearing sometime in the early ‘90s. Now, it appears they’ve decided to rear their heads and release a couple of new 45s. Resurrection consists of two reworkings of tunes previously explored on their Ghost Walking Double EP twelve-inch more than a quarter century ago. The title track is pretty faithful to the original, with a tempo that would make the Melvins envious in its sludge and gloomy lyrics, while “Inferno of Joy” has been reimagined as an almost Parisian street dirge, with what sounds like a concertina sharing space with acoustic guitars.
–jimmy (A389, a389records.com)