Rudimentary Peni - Pope Adrian 37th Psychristiatric

Eerily, I awoke this morning with the subliminal chant that runs beneath this album reverberating in my head: "Papus Adrianus Papus Adrianus" etc. Clearly a sign that it should be today's post. Rudimentary Peni's early albums are unassailable classics, and universally loved among connoisseurs of the bizarre and mad, but this fourth LP is where jolly old Nick Blinko begins to lose some people. Widely categorized as a concept album, this was (legend has it) written while Blinko was institutionalized for his supposed delusions of being the reincarnation of twelfth century pope Adrian IV. The case can be made that it is more of a focused blast of insanity than a purposefully conceptual work, but with Blinko it's always been a fine line, and the point is moot when discussing the music [sic] either way. Somewhat of a retreat from Cacophony's wild ferocity and genre-defying ambition, this signals a return to simplicity that would further define later albums, eventually reducing lyrics to simple couplets and quatrains and song structure to one or two atonal riffs. It took your narrator some time to fully appreciate this metamorphosis but this album is the reverse coccoon stage, as if an elaborate but hideous butterfly had wrapped itself in a straightjacket and would emerge as a screaming caterpillar some time in the near future.
We're gonna destroy life as the world gets higher and higher.