Shane’s Rock Challenge: LIFE SEX & DEATH – 1992 – The Silent Majority

Shane | 23 July 2014 | Reply

Shane’s Rock Challenge: LIFE SEX & DEATH – 1992 – The Silent Majority
By Shane Pinnegar
9/10

I don’t recall a lot about these guys, other than the singer was a homeless bloke who stunk because he never washed, and this – their only album – is an incredibly intense – and confronting – listen.

A little digging online tells us a bit more…

Primarily centred around guitarist Alex Kane (who would go on to short stints in Enuff Z’Nuff, Ginger Wildhearts’ Clam Abuse and others, before settling in UK glam-punk outfit AntiProduct [not to be confused with US Anti-Product]) and singer ‘Stanley’ (Chris Stann), they apparently did record a follow-up to be called Human Bomb, but it was never released. After Kane left the band in ’94 both Warren DeMartini of Ratt and John 5 of Rob Zombie’s band played with Life Sex & Death briefly, but they never regained their momentum.

Striking at that pivotal time when hard rock, metal, grunge and alternative briefly all shared major chart action, this militant, aggressive, heavy-as-fuck album managed to straddle genres and score the band some attention, especially with Fuckin’ Shit Ass, a song that was simultaneously bone-crushingly heavy, bludgeoningly scary and hyper-melodic.

Elsewhere there was the subterranean nuclear test of Jawohl Asshole, the tongue-in-cheek (I think) School’s For Fools and Farm Song, both of which stand out against the Anti-The-Man songs that mostly populate the record, and the super-metal-blues of Train.

Wikipedia also alludes to Stanley’s homeless persona as a possible act, but isn’t definitive on the subject, saying only that he would get “dressed in dirty clothes and wandered around the audience before gigs, mumbling incoherently.” So there you go.

Excellent album.