Attention Deficit
The Idiot King

THE REVIEW

Christ, how the term supergroup irritates me; it's really something that makes me spin my balls like a propeller, especially because it's used far too often in such an improper manner that it can only increase my frustration. In these cases, the group is "super" because it includes superstars from big-name bands, and many times the result is a super bullshit (one of the latest I heard was The Damned Things, which gave me a rash).

That said, I can say that in this case, it's a term that cannot be avoided. And not because the people involved are three guys of the caliber of Tim "Herb" Alexander (Primus, do I really need to tell you?) Alex Skolnick (Testament, do I really have to spell it out?) and Michael Manring, but because they are super themselves. Over the top, beyond human technical possibilities, and when put together in one project, it's something to be feared. Too bad this is their second and last album. "The Idiot King" is the epitome of what prog, in my opinion, should be today, yesterday, tomorrow. The astonishing guitar progressions on "The Risk Of Failure", with its calm interlude bordering on certain electric jazz, culminating in King Crimson-like lyricism, backed by Herb's always lagging drums, or the intro with harmonics and the ride bell in "American Jingo", a circular melody whipped by the bass to the point of clipping, tiptoeing with looped background atmospheres ("no synthesizers" our guys assure in the booklet), culminating in the digressed frenzy of the deranged rhythm section. Or the amphetamine-fueled funk immediately turned into jazzprog with seventies tones in "Lov Voter Turnout", with these ambient guitar single notes keeping the tension sky-high. And the crazy nervous rhythm at the start of "My Fellow Astronauts", which is pure electricity, erupting into a massive mid-tempo, breaking here and there into spatial openings.

An electric Cerberus. And to hell with supergroups.