Meat Beat Manifesto - 99%

Meat Beat Manifesto
99%

Welcome to another futile year in your existence. As you trod off to class with the war on your mind and escape in your heart, you search for something up-tempo that will get your adrenalin pumping and give you the energy to face another horrible day.

What yo need is some MEAT! Fear not, you silly vegetarians. I’m talking about Meat Beat Manifesto. This group is the living embodiment of adrenalin. Imagine, if you will, a drill instructor strung out on speed screaming to a funny industrial-rap beat and you begin to understand what Meat Beat Manifesto accomplishes on their new album 99%. 

On 99% the group (Johnny Stephens, Jack Dangers, Craig Morrison and Marcus Adams) takes us on a guided tour of a human psyche on the verge of a total nervous collapse. The trip is a definite kickstart to any old heart.

The album begins with “Now” which urges you to quit being indecisive and choose whether you want to go to Heaven or Hell because time is running out. “I’m in paradise now,” Johnny Stephens teases as the song fades out.

It is followed by the current dance floor smash “Psyche Out”. I have never heard a dance song charged with so much power and fire as this one. “Can you see me, Lord? Can you see me psyched out?” he cries with the desperation of a man who has swallowed fifty No-Doz pills.

“Somebody give the Lord a handclap,” begins the nest song “All The Things You Are”. This song has the funk of Parliament with the attitude of Front 242. 

Next up is “Hello Teenage America” which gives us an idea as to what a Vegas lounge song might sound like in the year 2094, if we don’t blow each other up before then. 

Side one ends with “10 X Faster Than The Speed Of Love”, a relatively mellow song compared to the rest of the album. It is a good song to prepare you for the auditory attack which is to follow on the next side.

The first three songs on side two, “99%”, “Dogstar Man”, and “Helter Skelter” (no, not the Beatles’ song) are all combined into one long song on the album. It is a cornerstone in the rising wall of industrial music. 

It is followed by a little ditty called “Think Fast” which is a bit generic . It sounds like a filler song to preserve album continuity.

This tiny slump is more than made up for by the next song “Hallucination Generation” (no, not the Gruesome Twosome song). The best way to describe this song is by saying that it sounds like an update of the Beatles’ “Revolution No. 9”. This song will provide fond memories for anyone who has experimented with hallucinogenics in their lifetime. 

The album ends with “Deviate” which first asks you to “degrade yourself” and thens tells you to “improve yourself”. The perfect ending for an album fraught with mental confusion. 

99%  by Meat Beat Manifesto is a perfect album for psychotics or anyone interested in exploring the mind of one. Psychologists will have a field day with the lyrics. While other, more normal people like myself, will be content to just hang from the ceiling covered in milk chocolate and groove to the industrial sound of MEAT!