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Nuclear Power Pants are in a difficult position. In recent years, the band has become known for putting on an over-the-top Maximalist show of shows both locally and nationally. The time has come to translate that show to an album that will be widely available for consideration and discussion. In this set of circumstances, it is often difficult to create an aural document that stands up to the test. In this reviewer’s opinion, when the Pants are tried on, many listeners will find that they fit.

From the opening skree of Flipper-feedback on “Got Soul, Need Body,” density is key. Each layer of the track interweaves with the next, some elements stomping forward, some providing counter-measure, each instrument and performer in the tentet adding weight to the mass. They’ve got some soul but they need a body, and the body forms, rhythm section smashing along, Daniel Meath’s synths mutating in and out of frame, the chorus of the Redfield Librarians providing a Martian response to the twin calls of Benjamin Beast and R.M. O’Brien.

The lady Librarian’s vocal contribution to the stew stand out especially on “Uh Oh,” their gang vocals running the gamut, going from baby coos to vocal exercise outtakes to classic girl group dynamics. They want to live in the eagle’s throat, and so do we, if it is truly as wild and wonderful a place as the song suggests.

Soon enough, we are on to a stripped-down “Graveyard” filled with synth-ghosts and stun-gun breakdowns. This whole album is haunted by the spirit of the Residents, maybe some Beat Happening naiveté, maybe some eight-bit video game theme songs, definitely some Theremin. By “Partytime U.S.A.”, the last track of the first side of the album, the rules of this ride have been established. Keep your hands and arms inside the car at all times, or you may just be sucked out into the vortex. Maybe you would like to be.

That is not to say that a beast with this many tentacles can be easily pinned down. “Survivor” is downright mournful, Devlin Rice and Rob Dowler’s rhythm section trudging on despite it all, images of end times floating overhead via Ryan Syrell’s noise treatments. The mood turns funereal and desperate, the air thick with dogged determination in the face of punishing climes.

We emerge triumphant from the desert into the nervous agitation of “Screwdriver.” We have been up all night at the most awesome sleepover party ever. Ribcage, birdcage, jackknife… things have stopped making sense. We are sweaty and twitchy and have had too much soda. The heat from the video game machines makes for a manic swirl of ozone and pizza grease. It gets so hot inside the arcade.

“Destroy Destroi,” a desperate pleader, manages to channel Dub Housing-era Pere Ubu without sounding derivative, a marvelous feat. For whom is it that Beast and O’Brien yearn? The answer is outside of the listener’s knowledge. All we know is that they have no arms to hold them.

Percussion dominates the album closer “Teeth of a Lion,” all glockenspiel tinkles and feedback trails. We glide along over hill and dale, the ride slowly coming to a stop. They’ve got a long wingspan, so we have time to stop along the way, visiting with the Redfield Librarians (sometimes Becca Chambers and Lizzy Hayes, sometimes Erin Gleeson and Heather McNally, but always Melanie Hayes), who are gently intoning over bleating horns. We settle slowly in the dust of the valley, back to where we began, feedback scree the last layer standing.

Wicked Eats the Warrior is a compilation of sorts, old songs re-worked and new songs added into the mix. This diversity of source material, composed over the seven years of the band’s fits and starts of existence, brings a pleasing variety to the recording. All the colors are sharp, the dark and the light brought out in high definition and sharp contrast. This is the best showcase that Nuclear Power Pants could be given outside of the spectacle of their live show. Allow yourself a good soak in this record and you will find yourself transported to a world of aural mad scientists, ghosts in the graveyard, suicide survivors. You will be better for it.

Nuclear Power Pants will be playing a release show for Wicked Eats the Warrior on Saturday, September 26th at Floristree in Baltimore with Blue Leader, Santa Dads, and Witch Hat. The doors open at 7:41 PM (for astrological reasons). Music begins at 9.

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