PureVolume

“A Vampire Mooose is the meanest thing you could ever encounter.” - Eric Baudendistel

Unorthodox, unrelenting and utterly unpredictable, St. Louis quartet Vampire Mooose may well be the meanest musical beast you ever encounter. It certainly will be one of the most unique.

Fusing death metal brutality and raw hardcore intensity with abstract, progressive arrangements and jazz-like instrumental dexterity, Mooose sounds something like the progeny of an insane cross-breeding of Meshuggah, Dillinger Escape Plan and Obituary - only weirder and more vicious.

Mooose’s skull-scrambling Rotten Records self titled debut, is an album that’s entirely out of this world. From Chuck Sevick’s dive-bombing, turn-on-a-dime guitaring and Eric Baudendistel’s tornadic drumming to Ryan Pulliam’s feral, spasmodic voice and cryptic lyrics, Vampire Mooose delivers pure sonic chaos on tracks like “Spiderman Vs. Venom,” “Adamantium’s Elbow” and the evocative “Big House.”

Add to it the surreal, effects-laden instrumental “Waltz del Monstruo” and “Evil Dead” series hero Bruce Campbell’s “Welcome to S-Mart” voiceover before the crushing “Colonize,” and you’ve got anything but the same old metal thing.

“It’s an emotional train wreck that you can ride from track #1 all the way to the end of the album,” said Pulliam, who cites such far-flung influences as Tool, Sepultura, Tori Amos and Phish. “I think that this album provides an atmosphere with it that most heavy albums don’t provide.”

“We describe our sound and our style as raucous, or as we spell it ‘rawkus,’ a metal sound with an almost punk feel,” said Sevick. “We’ve always written our songs with the intention of not fitting in with any one style, or with anyone for that matter, except for people who are looking to hear something that may take a second or third listen to appreciate. That’s what we listen for in music - music that is not spoon-fed and piques interest.”

“I think all new school takes a couple of times to grasp it,” adds Pulliam. “But after you get it, it’s all love from there!”

Vampire Mooose has been getting much love in and around St. Louis since forming in early 1999. Its legion of “Mooose-heads” has grown exponentially during the past three years thanks to opening slots with Testament - and the more unlikely Nickleback and Hot Sauce Johnson - and the band’s own legendary headlining gigs.

“I think we have broken many boundaries in music ... our crowd consists of people from all different backgrounds; people that like all types of music like hardcore, hip-hop, death, grind and good old jam bands,” said Pulliam. “This is a hard thing to do because people that like one kind of music don’t like other kinds of music and won’t give it a chance if they didn’t hear it for themselves.”

The Mooose-heads are somewhat notorious for bringing as much intensity and aggression to Mooose shows as the band itself. This has made for nervous club owners and bouncers around the area, but it all earned enthusiastic word-of-mouth from show-goers that - along with a three-song demo available on MP3.com - helped spread the band’s reputation well beyond the Heartland.

“Using our music as a springboard into the pool of aggression, our crowds have a tendency to get very wild,” Sevick said.

“Our live show is very brutal and beautiful,” adds Pulliam. “We have never played a show without a huge pit. Our crowd is hands down, the most loyal and insane crowd I have ever seen. Without them it’s just a show, they provide the show for us and that drives us wild and makes us push harder for them.

“We don’t promote violence in any way shape or form at our live shows, but things happen. We try to keep things under control, but Mooose-heads are insane and I wouldn’t want it any other way.”

With the debut’s release imminent, and the band itching to tour, venues across America better be ready to batten down the hatches.

Vampire Mooose came together when Pulliam teamed with Sevick, former drummer James Manlove and recently departed bassist Al Carson, all veterans of such other local bands as Dr. Jones, Jibe and ninetrigger. They were acquaintances from the St. Louis-area scene, and pre-destined to work together.

“There is an old magazine (Back Stage, May-99') that features Jibe, Broke [another St. Louis metal band signed to Rotten] and ninetrigger, with a cover photo of all of us,” said Sevick. “In this magazine, Ryan talks about taking all of these groups and forming one group and calling it Vampire Mooose.”

And so it was done. From the start, the band was an intense endeavor. Manlove bailed in the fall of ‘99, and was replaced by Baudendistel, who’d attended Boston’s prestigious Berklee College of Music, where he’d learned a lot of jazz.

“We were much-anticipated when we started this project,” Sevick said. “We were very excited and there was a lot of energy at our live performances and that energy is still building. We are all very excited about the range of unlimited possibilities.”

On the strength of the aforementioned demo, Vampire Mooose signed with Rotten last year. The debut full-length was recorded at Jupiter Studios in downtown St. Louis to record with producer Jim Callahan.

“We had so much fun, maybe too much fun,” Sevick said. “There was laughing, fighting, mending, creation, destruction and nudity!! “The album is everything I had hoped it to be and more. It’s heavy, mean, unrelenting, fun, and just an all-around good album. We’ve got Bruce Campbell on it!! What more could I ask for?”