Album Review: Mondo Generator – Fuck It

The fact that stoner rock legends Queens Of The Stone Age have now recorded more bad albums than good ones can, in my opinion, be contributed to just one factor. They don’t have Nick Oliveri in their ranks anymore. All the greats have a ying to their yang and the danger and edginess in Oliveri’s playing is what Queens now sorely lack and what makes Mondo Generator a more potent threat than ever before. “Fuck It” represents the band’s first new output in nearly a decade and finds the band in formidable form.

There are moments on this album which give the listener a loose unhinged feeling the kind we’ve not heard since the likes of Black Flag as is evident straight off the bat in “Nowhere Man.” There are some serious Bad Brains vibes on the breakneck punk of “Up Against The Void” with guitarist Mike Pygmie exhibiting some serious Dr Know style riffing. The ominous “Kyuss Dies” is a more laid-back affair but with groves for days as Nick lays down his thoughts on why the influential stoner rock outfit, should be laid to rest once and for all. The title track sounds like his former band when they were at their rocking best. Nick has roped Olga the singer from his other band the Russian thrashcore outfit Svetlanas, for an absolutely raging track, in which they quite literally spell out why they hate you in “S.V.E.T.L.A.N.A.S” which just feels like one long threat to your life. The pace is slowed down somewhat in “Option 4,” a sleazy slab of psych rock that lays bare the possibilities open to you,if ever you find yourself surrounded by the law, something that Oliveri has obviously spent a lot of time thinking about. Buying the CD gets you an extra track at the end “Disease With No Control” where Nick spouts about the absolute state humanity currently finds itself in.

Punk hasn’t felt this dangerous in a long time and Mondo Generator aren’t even strictly a punk band, at least not in the traditional term. But’s that’s why we love them. Mondo can be anything it damn well pleases and whatever they choose to do, they’ll probably do it better than most. A vicious album for vicious times, welcome back Mondo Generator. We’ve missed you. 

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