This album and this band have a real polemical style reminiscent of the Old Testament prophets. First is the name which is a stab at Frank Zappa who claimed that Christians were his enemies. Secondly, the subject matter of many of the songs on this disc take issue with many things that are at odds with Christianity. Most noticeable is the song "Stephen Hawking Walked Away". (Hawking is the Cambridge Prof. who popularized cosmological studies in his book, A Brief History of Time. Hawking suffers from Lou Gehrig's Disease and is confined to a wheelchair, thus the irony of the song title). So, like Elijah and the prophets of Baal, FE takes issue with the "gods of this age". I admire this so long as it is done competently. I'd say that FE has done an adequate job, though I'm reluctant to be too critical of Hawking. After all, Hawking does not deny God. Secondly, Hawking is a whole lot smarter than I am.
Musically this album did not really tickle my fancy. For one thing the disc is only 37 minutes long. While 37 minutes is standard for a pop album, it isn't for metal, especially when there are 11 tracks! The first song--which happens to be my favorite--is not even metal and is one of the longest songs on the disc at 3 minutes. It is a quiet, gypsy-like song with acoustic guitar and female vocals. This song bleeds into 9 super heavy, grinding, hard to distinguish songs, many of which sound tongue in cheek. All of them are blurry, fast, and erratic. And then the last song, "Stephen Hawking Walked Away" is a funky, slap-metal, Primus-like song. It is also enjoyable. So what we have musically is a folk and funk on the ends and a lot of sludge in the middle. Perhaps Steve Rowe described it best when he called it a "bizarre noise/grind combo". I'm sure that there are some people out there who will love this disc. I however, prefer something a little more consistent.
Other coverage for this album
Garlic Press #6Reviewed by tedcoreMaybe you caught our interview with Julio Rey in Garlic #3 where he told us all about this CD, well now we have it beginning with a beautiful gtr ballad. Then you hit track 2: grindcore in the truest sense of the word. The best way to describe this song or album for that matter would be to somehow mix Disrupt with Slayer & Earth Crisis and occasionally throw in a little Minor Threat. As with FE's…The Phantom Tollbooth 1996Reviewed by Josh SpencerDon't buy this unless you have to have every Christian death metal album. Very fast, sloppy death metal with some hardcore vocals and slowed down doom metal thrown in on occasion. Below-average production (but much better than previous Frank's Enemy albums). 1.5 tocksDead Zine 1996Reviewed by CeebIf you are a fan of extremely strange music with a lot of sound effects and noises then you will sincerely love FE. Based in Florida, this band's type of explosive death metal-grind, mixed with just flat out groove will satisfy most types of music. The production of this album is very good, with the cover and inside of the C.D. case looking very professional, and not cheap. The songs that stick…Dead Zine 1996Reviewed by D_ListerThe best Grindcore in a long time? The best Death Metal in a long time? The best hardcore in a long time? The best doom in a long time? What do you call this? I don't know, how about the best CD in a long time? THAT's IT. Oh, and do you like noise? Well it's done really well here too. Could there be any more sounds this CD has to offer? Well, did I mention groove/funk? No? Just listen to "Stephen…Similar sounding releases
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