ICP and Mike E. Clark Party on the Dark Side with Bang! Pow! Boom!

Bang! Pow! Boom!, the eleventh studio album from Detroit's own underground horrorcore group Insane Clown Posse is a return to the band's darker side.

In the late 90's the band picked up a number of loyal fans known as the Juggalos as they unraveled their six Joker's Card albums.

The albums dealt with the Dark Carnival concept of spiritual forces, storms and the road to purgatory. The final Joker's Card was split up into two cds dealing with heaven and hell or the Wraith and Hell's Pit.

Since the end of the Joker's Cards the band has moved away from telling stories with their records. However, Bang! Pow! Boom! marks a return to the Dark Carnival concept. This included a return to working with Detroit producer Mike E. Clark, who was responsible for much of ICP's early work and is known for his standout beats.

The album is easily the best material they've put out since Hell's Pit. After it's debut, Bang! Pow! Boom! entered the Billboard Top 200 charts at number four and number one on the Indie charts. This is probably due to the fact that the album does a nice job of balancing the grimness of the early ICP work with the more bouncy "commercial" sound of their last few albums.

Bang! Pow! Boom! was released in three different versions (red, green and blue representing the three characters of Bang, Pow and Boom). Each version features a different opening track and a different closing hidden track.

For this review I am looking at the green version of the cd. The album opens with the track The Clowns Are Back, which is a high energy track that does a great job at capturing the group's happiness to be back, "Back to the freek show, house of mirrors, maze of amazement, gone for years."

The fun continues with the heavy track In Yo Face, which keeps the party feel to the album going but with violent lyrics filled with heavy swaggering, "I crawl like a tarantula on my toes and thumbs. Born to the carnies, gypsies and bums."

Next up is the track The Bone, which repeatedly asks the question, "Why do they f**k with me?" Despite the track's brutal lyrics, it's catchy chorus will have you chanting and moving along.

The Zombie Slide is a standout track that takes a humorous look at raising the dead for a dance off, "Get up, jump with the boom. Zombie slide up out ya tomb."

The second half of the album moves into darker, harder territory with the track To Catch a Predator. The track deals with taking the law into your own hands by attacking pedophiles. The track is reminiscent of their hit Halls of Illusion, "I'm probably gonna burn for this. Ain't no lesson to learn from this. There's nothing I'm a earn for this. But it sure is fun!"

Boing Boing is the weak point of the cd dealing with women throwing themselves at our protagonists. The song is nothing new and the lyrics are disappointing, "I introduce myself and panties start falling." The song disrupts the flow of the album.

Up next is I Found a Body, which examines how loneliness can drive someone to turn to the dead for a friend. The song is sung in a low key tone with a loud chorus that sticks with you after the song finishes, "I found a body. I sure as hell could use a buddy."

Love returns to the romance department but is a much better track than Boing Boing. The track is about obsession and stalking and has a killer beat, "I'm telling you girl, I'm watching you. I'm coming closer...I think I'm in love."

Fonz Pond is the perfect campfire horror story complete with death and folklore about the local haunted pond, "Off lickety trail there's a pond where many a children died. It's a place to run to and disappear."

Next up is the track Imma Kill You, which returns to the subject of vigilante justice, "Bang Boom Pow Boom Bang. Let your fists swing."

On just about every album ICP usually includes a track aimed at their loyal Juggalo fans. This time around they offer up the laid back track Juggalo Island. The uplifting song looks at what it would be like if all the Juggalos could come together on their own island, "Come get with this. Wicked ridiculous. This world is ours every bit of this."

Vultures is a track built around the evil in the world. All of the world's scum is compared to the eerie vultures that swoop down in death, "Pick at the heart, pick at the soul. Pick up and drag em down into your hole."

The album takes another slow turn with the track Vera Lee, a reflective look at the guilt that can come out of turning a blind eye to violence or abuse, "I hardly knew her for nothin'. I only knew she was cool. A quiet soul so fragile slippin through the hallways at school."

The depressing mood of Vera Lee leads into the more upbeat Miracles, which takes a look at the magic of everyday life. Although the lyrics are a bit corny, ICP does a pretty good job of making the track work, particularly as they deal with the subject of music "Music is magic, pure and clean. You feel it, you can hear it and it can't be seen."

The album's final track is Bang Pow Boom, which brings the album's story to a end. Throughout the cd there are skits dealing with the Dark Carnival inviting the world's murderers, rapists, etc. to a gathering in Nevada.

Bang Pow Boom brings the story to a close as the criminals come expecting a carnival full of wealth, fun and debauchery but instead are led to spectacular deaths at the hands of the three title characters, "Boom! It's your inevitable doom. Nobody escapes and everybodys consumed."

This version of the album features the final hidden track, Chop Chop Slide, a hilarious take on the popular Cha Cha Slide, "Juggalos what's our signal? Woot Woot. That's right!"

ICP is currently promoting Bang! Pow! Boom! on tour. They will be in Detroit at the Fillmore on October 31 for their annual Halloween show Hallowicked.