Following an eleven-year, ten studio album run on Anagram / Cherry Red, in 1996 Alien Sex Fiend cut loose, establishing their own 13th Moon Records label. Over the following two decades, the band released a selection of wonderfully intense albums, EPs and remixes, which are gathered together here for the first time, alongside over a dozen unreleased tracks.

Compiled and overseen by the inimitable Nik and Mrs Fiend, this latest volume in the classic albums series brings together four studio albums, Nocturnal Emissions, Information Overload, Death Trip and Possessed, material from the 13th Moon 10th Anniversary sampler album ‘Para-Abnormal’ plus the digital only ‘Re-Possessed’ EP, as well as excellent unreleased material exhumed from the band’s extensive archive.

Paired with their own recollections and Nik’s eye-catching graphics spanning the entire period, ‘Classic Albums Volume 3’ is a fascinating window into a period in Alien Sex Fiend’s career which saw them go it alone and create their music without external interference, dealing directly with every step of the process, from recording to art and design to sales and distribution.

Common practice in the 21st Century, but unexpected and somewhat revolutionary in the mid-1990s, and a path which took the band on their second trip on the rock ‘n roll rollercoaster, taking in encounters with headline festival stages and a whole new generation of producers influenced by their sound and aesthetic.

A must for fans and collectors of the band’s entire career, and especially for those who may be unfamiliar with these later period recordings. As ever, Nik’s lysergic psychotherapy lyrics and Mrs Fiend’s thunderous analogue soundscapes combine perfectly time and again, always familiar and yet always different.

Disc One: NOCTURNAL EMISSIONS (1998)
1. Evolution (Back from the Dread Part 2 Mix) 2. On A Mission 3. Warp Out 4. Big Blue Moon 5. Room 101 6. Soaking Wet, Mate 7. Garbage 8. Tarot 9. Sticky 10. Evolution (Back from the Dread Part 1 Mix) [Bonus Track] 11. Evolution (Hup 2-3-4 Mix) [Bonus Track]

The first CD is their 1998 album NOCTURNAL EMISSIONS, which is as hard a style techno as its elements portray them to be, trust me, but also very deep, wavy sounds without any percussion are brought forth at random times.

For me, the track Room 101 is one of my all-time favorite songs (it’s name taken from a place in the novel 1984, and is a torture chamber in the Ministry of Love, in which the Party attempts to subject a prisoner to his or her own worst nightmare, fear or phobia).

OK, sure, some might not outright classify it all as techno, but it sure ain’t punk, and yes, gothic is a definitive suggestion, but if you merge them all together you most definitely get something very special!

Disc Two: INFORMATION OVERLOAD (2004)
1. Information Overload 2. Motherf**ker Burn 3. Baby 4. Drug Of Choice 5. Gotta Have It 6. Lord Of The Sexual Matrix 7. Kiss Arse 8. Voices In My Head 9. Five To One 10. Information Overload (Terminator Mix)* [Bonus Track] 11. Five To One (Hell On Wheels Mix)* [Bonus Track]

The second disc is their 2004 album INFORMATION OVERLOAD, a record that consists of layers upon layers of samples, beats, guitars, subliminal noises, yelling and screaming, and of course that distinctly Fiendish flavor.

All told, it was a most perfect balance of social criticism, surrealism, creepiness and silliness. They were definitely pushing forward sonically, yet remaining true to themselves. Sometimes I miss that old lo-fi, primitive ASF sound, but then I get caught up in the all-out brilliance of these songs. I’m also glad they didn’t fully abandon their Goth-Punk roots this time as I thought they had after Inferno and Nocturnal Emissions.

Disc Three: DEATH TRIP (2010)
1. Erazerdrone 2. Land Of The Living Dead 3. One Way Ticket 4. The Hills Have Eyes 5. B.B.F.C. 6. Intensify The Treatment 7. Dance Of The Dead 8. Voodoo 9. Beyond A Psychic Evil 10. Oops! Wrong Planet 11. Dub Of The Living Dead* [Bonus Track] 12. Dance Of The Dead (Part 2 Mix)* [Bonus Track] 13. Oops! Wrong Planet (Dub)* [Bonus Track] 14. B.B.F.C. (Dub)* [Bonus Track] 15. VooDub* [Bonus Track] 16. The Hills Have Eyes 2* [Bonus Track] 17. Intensified Treatment* [Bonus Track] 18. Beyond Erazerdrone* [Bonus Track] 19. Land Of The Living Dead (Reprise)*

The third disc is their 2010 album DEATH TRIP, and album that is, to my mind, consistently innovative and unique and which is why I am still so very much an avid fan of the wondrous ASF entity.

The instrumentals are intensely creepy and a level above what one of my friends termed simply as Halloween Music and to my mind, a brilliant continuation of everything they have created beforehand. It is, without a shadow of a doubt, a true ASF recording, with not a single thing missing and everything you look for in the band still right there on musical display.

Disc Four: POSSESSED (2018)
1. Possessed Intro 2. Shit’s Coming Down 3. It’s In My Blood 4. Carcass 5. Ghost In The Machine 6. Amnesia 7. Spine-Tingler 8. Gotta Get Back 9. Invisible (The Beyond Mix) 10. Neutron 11. Bloody Reprisal 12. Shit’s Coming Down (Monster Mix) 13. Shit’s Coming Down (Monster Mash)* [Bonus Track] 14. Carcass (Vulture Mix)* [Bonus Track]

The fourth disc is their 2018 album POSSESSED, and was the bands first since the aforementioned Death Trip, and marked the band’s return to the Cherry Red Records fold after more than two decades releasing music on its own imprint.

As we all know by now, sadly, and as this material was being brought together and recorded, multiple roadblocks befell the band, most tragic that being the passing of Doc Milton in late 2016; but thankfully they had captured enough of his playing to enable the album’s eventual completion, after an understandable break in its development.

As with peak ASF, when Nik is in full vocal flight, with his scorched howling like a bubonic plague outbreak during a nuclear attack on Albert Square, there’s no real need to throw a distorted electric guitar into the mix, but on much of Possessed that’s exactly what you get – and in far more plentiful servings than have been dished out since Open Head Surgery from 1992.

Thankfully, Doc’s inventive stylings are all over it, from sliding space cowboy twangs in ‘Ghost In The Machine’ to the unlikely appearance of a zombified MBV wobble in ‘Amnesia’. Short closer ‘Bloody Reprisal’, a brief, muted echo of aforementioned epic skuzzy techno stomper ‘It’s In My Blood’, unleashes at 0:52 a most gruesome and unexpected sonic weapon – the harmonica!

Disc Five: BONUS DISC (ALTERNATIVE MIXES)
PARA-ABNORMAL
1. Gotta Have It (Sliced & Diced Mix) 2. Tarot (Full Tilt #5 Mix) 3. Tarot (Pod Dub) 4. Voices In My Head (Mrs. Fiend’s InstruMental Mix) 5. Baby (Demo) 6. Information Overload (ReVamp Mix) 7. On A Mission (Hellfire Dub)

RE-POSSESSED E.P.
8. Re-Possessed Intro 9. Shit’s Coming Down (Dodger Mix) 10. It’s In My Blood (Dominatrix Mix) 11. Amnesia (Primal Mix) 12. Invisible (Prowler Mix) 13. Neutron (Demo)

(8-13 never before on CD)
(* previously unreleased)

• THE THIRD IN THE SERIES OF ALIEN SEX FIEND ALBUMS BOX SETS.

• COVERING THE BAND’S 13TH MOON RECORDS YEARS, 1996-PRESENT.

• WITH 13 PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED TRACKS + SIX TRACKS NEVER BEFORE ON CD!

• SLEEVE NOTES AND GRAPHICS BY NIK AND MRS FIEND.

• CURATED BY THE ALIEN SEX FIEND, IN ASSOCIATION WITH CHERRY RED.

Alien Sex Fiend - Classic Albums (Volume 3) [Trailer]

Official Purchase Link