Unlike most thrash metal bands of the '80s, Mr. Bungle was formed in an impoverished logging and fishing town by a trio of curious, mercurial teenagers. Trey Spruance, Mike Patton and Trevor Dunn formed the amorphous "band" in Humboldt County, California in 1985, playing through a variety of members until they settled on a lineup in 1989 and landed a contract with Warner Bros. Records. No one really knows how it came to be, and it remains a complete mystery that even the algorithms of the internet can't decipher. By 2000, the band had released three albums and toured much of the western hemisphere. Some claim that the band broke up after that, but there is no proof of this either. What is true is that they did not perform under that name for 20 years while they pursued various other musical directions, which did allow them to pay their rent.
Although Mr. Bungle regularly changed their orchestrations and used exotic instruments such as saxophone, synthesizer or even timpani (!!!), they remained anchored in the mosh pit of their youth and continued to reference metal in one way or another. Even on their last tours of the millennium, they played songs from their very first demo, the self-produced, amateurish gem "The Raging Wrath of The Easter Bunny" (1986).
The urge to return to the metal genre completely was too strong to resist. So the idea was born to re-record this original demo and give the music the much needed presentation and precision it deserved. Spruance, Patton & Dunn decided to go to the source and select the two guys who could help them realize this work as desired. Without hesitation, Scott Ian and Dave Lombardo (Anthrax, Slayer) were invited to rise from their poolside loungers and do the "speed-picking" and "double-bassing" with these small-town fanboys. They accepted and threw themselves into the music with full force, like a skate punk into a wall of slam dancers. In 2020, the recording of "The Raging Wrath of The Easter Bunny Demo" was completed in about 10 days after a series of sold-out pre-Covid shows.
Being a musical homecoming after some 35 years, the re-recording felt brand new and could be objectively enjoyed, not to mention revitalized by the masters Ian and Lombardo.Mr. Bungle retained the rawness and austerity of the original demo without embellishing it too much, letting the music speak for itself, in all its "teenage angst glory."In addition to what was included on the original cassette, three original songs from the same period have been realized for the first time.With this new album, the band's first in 20 years, Mr. Bungle has appointed himself the final piece of the "pentagonal Big Five" puzzle.