ZODIAC MINDWARP AND THE LOVE REACTION – High Priest Of Love + Wild Child EP [0dayrox rip]

After the Rock Candy remastered version of ZODIAC MINDWARP AND THE LOVE REACTION second album posted at 0dayrox, many asked for the band’s first album, the nasty, ass kickin’ 1986’s “High Priest Of Love“.
There was a limited edition on CD very hard to find now, so the 0dayrox team ripped the LP release for your listening pleasure. And we have more; Zodiac’s first EP ‘Wild Child‘ from 1985.
These recordings – and the band – were a completely different beast from the hard rock / glam metal acts at the time, and even influenced a change of image / looks in years to come.
Nothing comes close to those records, they are the highest of the high and the coolest of the cool, the grooviest and gravy-est and flashiest of all flash metal records, now and forever.

Mark Manning AKA Zodiac Mindwarp formed The Love Reaction in 1985 with the dude from The Orb, and in the early days the band was lumped in with the “Grebo” movement, which was some made up bullshit that I still love but don’t understand (also Grebo: Gaye Bykers on Acid, Crazyhead, Bomb Party, Pop Will Eat Itself).

The ‘Wild Child’ single / EP introduced the world to The Love Reaction in 1985. A swirling psychedelic metal monster full of flamboyant chest-thumpery and all manner of sleazy rock’n’roll excess, it set the stage for ‘High Priest Of Love’ a few months later.
A throbbing, horny monster of an album, ‘High Priest Of Love’ crawled hand over gnarled fist to the top of the UK indie charts and paved the wild highway for the band’s next album.
Forget the UK, man. They already had that sewn up. In 1988, The Love Reaction wanted the world. And with ‘Tattooed Beat Messiah’, they nearly got it.

It is in no way revisionist history when I tell you that ‘Tattooed Beat Messiah’ was the dividing line between us and them, with Poison, Bon Jovi and Motley Crue on one side and Circus of Power, Warrior Soul, and White Zombie on the other.
The cool kids knew the score. Punks liked Zod, so did the goths. Thrashers and smashers were down with The Love Reaction, too. They represented something hipper, deeper, more cosmic than the standard party metal that ruled the day.

Zodiac Mindwarp was created by underground comics and sexploitation movies and beat poetry and Detroit rock’n’roll and American cop shows from the 1970s. Sure man, Mark Manning went to art school and was a rock journalist before he was a rock star and was probably smarter than he pretended to be, but even though the whole band was a ruse, an art project gone awry, it was still more authentic than anything else at the time.
Zodiac Mindwarp told the truth, even when he lied. And he lied all the time. But he also wrote ‘Prime Mover’, one the most effective rock’n’roll songs from the ’80s. And he dressed like evil biker Jesus, and his band looked like the most dangerous people in the world.

It’s not a surprise the title track ‘Return of the Living Dead, Part II’ was used later for the movie soundtrack ‘Return of the Living Dead, Part II’. It perfectly fits.
The records sold, Z’s face was plastered on the covers of magazines, The Love Reaction toured America with Guns N’ Roses. Groupies were groped and arenas were rocked.
And while Zodiac Mindwarp and The Love Reaction burnt soon, these records are here to document one of the wildest and most innovative hard rock band from the ’80s.
Highly Recommended

Only at 0dayrox

High Priest Of Love (1986)
01 – High Priest Of Love
02 – Speed King
03 – High Heel Heaven
04 – Dangerous
05 – Kick Start Me For Love
06 – Wild Child (Second Attempt)

Wild Child EP (1985)
07 – Psycho-Active
08 – I Want Your Love
09 – Wild Child (Crunch-Down Destroyer Mix)

Gut rupture bass by Stefan
Head injury drums bashed by Jake Le Mesurier
Sex monster vocals, metal guitars & irritating sleeve design by Zodiac Mindwarp

Out of print