The Missing Link

“…survival of the fittest, caveman will survive…”

It’s no surprise the follow-up ep to the band’s offbeat Coroner’s Office isn’t clear-cut or normal. Oh, the music’s in the same vein, it’s the shuffling of musicians and their instruments, original recording dates, and other stuff that makes you have to read the entire back cover to get it straight.

By the time of its release around the summer of ’87, guitarist John Alexander handed the axe over to Andrew Donheiser, but he doesn’t appear anywhere on this four-tracker that contains songs written during the debut’s session as well as the year of the ep. Two ‘guest’ guitarists, Michelle Meldrum (RIP) and Phil Williams of the great demo-weary Wargod, help out on one track each, and on one track half the original line-up play musical chairs with their instruments.

The pair of downtrodden tunes weighing down side one are the more tedious of the four, obviously stuff that was swept from the cutting room floor of Coroner’s Office and given life here. “Caveman”…well, all of their tracks thus far have been on the Cro-Magnon side of writing and performance, so this aptly named lament fits right in. With the speed of a funeral procession at the start and midway, the song unfolds uncomplicatedly with a moderate pace and into a chorus that smirks with near-comical, dimwitted backing vocals. Alexander’s soloing style hasn’t changed, still strangely impassioned and hardly perfect. Bassist Mark Kelley introduces his untainted punk vocal style to “Organized Crime” while John McCarthy grabs Kelley’s bass and a pick, an amiable throwaway song at best that ends the side.

“Fetus Man” is the Phil Williams featurette, a strong deep-toned dragoon that uncharacteristically has a couple of things going on within. McCarthy’s vocals have tamed slightly over the year, coming off more decipherable, yet hold onto most of the throatiness that gave people fits. Higher-pitched rhythms help form an odd chorus that seems to outlast the main riffs in length. “Quietus (Charnel House)” gets Meldrum off the couch on the back cover and poised for some beefy doom-step action while McCarthy spits out words in a semi-story-like fashion. The song’s stride doesn’t gallivant from the lumbering brew throughout the song, yet for some reason to me doesn’t seem overdrawn despite its 6+ minute lifespan.

While this little ep doesn’t answer the question the title implies (not that anyone was waiting with bated breath for it to), for three songs that matter it’s not bad. I don’t know where the tunes have resurfaced ‘cause the cd version of Coroner’s Office I’ve seen doesn’t have them and the subsequent efforts show no sign of them.