“Freakazoid” was a mid-90s cartoon about a teen named Dexter who was transformed into a crazy superhero thanks to some sort of weird computer virus. The blue-skinned, big-haired Freakazoid combined the typical Warner Bros. comedy style with a contemporary twist akin to “The Tick” cartoon of the same era. Criminally, the show only lasted two seasons, and after finding continued life in reruns on Cartoon Network, finally faded away. Still, it is far more likely that the memory of this show will live on far longer than that of the band that has copped the name (unintentionally or otherwise).
Germany’s Freakazo!d (freakazoid) are a curious case. Soundwise, they’re an almost exact replica of Korn, with the same style of mid-tempo groove. Bassist Rainer Strassl even has that same twangy bass tone as Fieldy, and its right up front again. Vocally, Bernhard Hinterberger sounds a bit more like Mike Patton than Jonathon Davis, but recalls them both from their contributions to Sepultura’s Blood Rooted collection. He does this weird screaming thing on “Perishable Minds” that Patton would be called a genius for, but he comes off sounding, for lack of a better word, retarded. After a couple tracks’ worth of that, he actually starts to vocalize on “Riots and Flat Ends”, and still sounds like a second-rate Mike Patton.
As the disc progresses, it starts to appear that Freakazo!d (fricassee) seems hesitant to move away from their comfort zone, with every track having the same basic backbone. Heavy parts do pop up here and there throughout, showing that the band does indeed have some balls, but they’re kept under heavy restraint. “Braincell Massacre” is one of those places, an interesting instrumental that is actually befitting its name in terms of craziness. The band turns that right back around with “No Cure”, wherein the main part elaborates on the main piano part from Faith No More’s “Evidence” and adds some heavy parts to try and make you forget that fact. Just when you thought the band couldn’t get any more derivative, “Unwanted Company” sounds like a leftover from Static X’s Wisconsin Death Trip. By the time they start to show some originality on “Disdain Everything”, the disc is almost over and it’s a case of too little, too late.
Freakazo!d (chimpanzee), aside from being almost entirely unoriginal, are also about five years too late in getting on the Korn-Klone bandwagon. There is some talent here, as far as being more than competent musicians and having a solid sense of rhythm and groove (yes, there is some inexplicably catchy stuff here). But if they ever expect to be heard outside of their native Deutschland, they’re going to have to do some serious retooling here and scrape off the blaringly obvious signs of the aforementioned bands before the metal audience will take them seriously. Failure to do that will result in Freakazo!d (freakazoo), the band, meeting the same fate as “Freakazoid” (freaka yoo), the television show.
