Alien Sex Fiend, The Batcave Masters

What we've got here is a failure to communicate what's really great about ASF. Yet another Cleopatra compilation that falls short of the mark, "The Batcave Masters" is of little use to the casual listener or the devoted Fiend fan.

Track selection-wise, this comp misses out on the biggest and most obvious hits that a newcomer will likely go ape for: "Ignore The Machine", "Now I'm Feeling Zombified" and even the club staple "I Walk The Line". Conversely, anyone who owns at least a few Fiend albums is going to find a lot of overlap here, and precious little in the way of rarities to make this excursion worthwhile. The inclusion of ASF's cover of the "Batman" theme is a nice touch, but almost everything else here is readily available and still in print.

As far as the packaging and presentation go, Cleopatra drop the ball again, giving Barry Bonds' fielding record a run for its money. The cover art consists of, get this, the cover art of "Acid Bath" rotated ninety degrees. The same image appears on the back cover. I know this is a petty and whiny concern, but it just speaks to the slapdash lack of care Cleopatra put into so much of their work, especially considering how they go out of their way to present the artists they release as being absolutely essential yet overlooked (which, fairly enough, is accurate in ASF's case). Same story in the liner notes: Dave Thompson, the same bloke who did the duty for Cleo's Madonna and U2 tribute albums, gives a brief and unsatisfying bio, and manages to make himself look like an idiot by criticizing ASF's earliest reviewers for not "doing their homework". Thompson claims that instead of portraying ASF and The Batcave in general as hip new flavours, such reviewers should have realised that ASF's roots could be found in Nik Fiend's earlier band The Demons, whose recording of "I Wish I Woz A Dog" predates the Alien Sex Fiend version by two years. Unfortunately for Thompson, the two songs are entirely different.

Anyone looking for an introduction to Alien Sex Fiend is infinitely better server by the low priced two-disc compilation "Wardance Of The Alien Sex Fiend"; committed Fiend-heads looking for rarer brain oozings from the head of Nik and the missus are urged to pick up the equally low priced two-disc compilation of B-sides and rarities, "Fiend At The Controls".

More reviews