Reviews RACD112
Trondheim mavericks Motorpsycho have good reason to reissue their seminal 1993 release: although originally put out as a double vinyl albums, three tracks were cut form the CD version. "Gutwrench" is a superbly nasty addition, all churning bass rumble and discordant vocals. "Mr Who" is a clattering, lo-fi excursion to planet oddball, but it adds still more beguiling strangeness to an album already heavily laced with it. Best of all, though, is the 11-minute "Mountain", whose brooding bassline and slow, prowling tempo underpin a lurching monster of a riff ... With a 1993 live show on the DVD, it's a fascinating document of the pivotal period in the career of one of European rock´s true originals. 9/10.
Classic Rock (UK)
How can these international bottom-feeders from Trondheim have had three unheard-of mid-90s albums reissued lately, in a multi-disc splendor fit for rock giants? Answer: In Norway, and across Europe, this incredible trio full of exploratory spirit and with phenomenal chops, are rightly held in high esteem. Booklet essays explain how "Demon Box" was their last gasp on a domestic indie deal and they threw everything at it, recruiting insane techno fella Deathprod, and busting every frontier of their post-hardcore / grunge sound. Slayer and Napalm Death were clearly hot spins chez ´Psycho, and boy, do they cook in that vein ... Months of succour here for any metal-leaning Anglo-American - if only they knew! 4/5.
Mojo (UK)
Motorpsycho's early work suggested they were a decent, if unspectacular, jam band with a thing for American blues and metal. All that changed with 1993's "Demon Box", their third album, which saw the Norwegians forsake the power trio format with the addition of Helge "Deathprod" Sten and his bank of noisy electronic effects. Cue monster blowouts, freeform psychedelia and a whole new sense of exploratory otherness. 8/10.
UK
Motorpsycho are in grand form here ... Further perspective is provided via a gloomy, raucous live DVD of the group in full flow at a gig in the wonderful Vera club in Groningen. Add in the extensive sleevenotes and the great design on the CD cases, ranging from lyrics to old-school video-cassette boxes and you´ve got a very respectful, sometimes playful, always excellent box of tricks. 4/5.
Record Collector (UK)
"Demon Box" was a defining moment for Motorpsycho, a make-or-break album which, it could be argued, has never quite been topped despite their near superhuman leaps of value, fury and strength since ... It's quite a package, muscular and mighty, and well worth the weight.
Rock-a-Rolla (UK)
The Trondheim band's third release marked them as weirdos to watch in 1993. An ambitious, eclectic double album, it saw them transition from a run-of-the mill grunge outfit into progressive magpies willing to throw everything into the pot. "Demon Box "remains a curious, conflicted and contradictory affair, lurching almost randomly from creepy folk to pounding metal to the left-field sonics of then-member Deathprod. To love it requires strenuous effort, and the splurge of uninspired muddy rockouts halfway through side one might alienate many, but if you're prepared to put a shift in, it yields dark charms.
Prog (UK)
Norwegian noise rockers Motorpsycho continue their expanded re-issue series (see also Timothy's Monster and Blissard) with what many fans still consider to be their finest moment and Demon Box was certainly their breakthrough album in Northern Europe and this lavish VFM five disc (4 x CD and 1 x DVD) box set contains all of the material originally intended for release the first time around in 1993 - alongside two EPs that followed the album, several live recordings, a nice clutch of unreleased outtakes and a fantastically primitive and chaotic one- camera video of a full gig at the Vera venue in Groningen.
Total music magazines (UK)
The great Motorpsycho reissue program continues apace with the arrival of the all-encompassing five-disc box set edition of "Demon Box". Cited as the album which best documents Motorpsycho´s transition from a relatively straight rock outfit to something a whole lot more divergent, the double album set from 1993 is here presented over the space of two discs including those tracks missing from the original single CD release ... Motorpsycho circa "Demon Box" are never less than a bewildering patchwork of styles and influences.
Shindig (UK)
Norway has an astonishing density of gruff and adventurous rockers. The Trondheim Trio Motorspycho is one of the best known and most daring representatives of its kind. The band cleverly combines noise and experimentation. The extended new edition of their classic "Demon Box" is accompanied by a DVD with a complete and appropriately wild concert from 1993 - in addition to the music stretched out on four audio CDs using all sorts of rarities.
Kultur Spiegel (DE)
With their cult album “Demon Box”, Motorpsycho made their final breakthrough in 1993. It was the crucial record in which the band switched from a straight rock band and played in the hearts of the fans. The opulent new edition in a stylish box set with 4 CDs plus DVD. The original double LP can be found on the first two CDs. On CD 3 there are the two EPs “Mountain” and “Another Ugly” as well as rare live material. The whole thing is completed by Rarities & Outtakes (CD4) and an unpublished documentary DVD. 5/6.
InHard (DE)
The "Demon Box" meant a small breakthrough for the Norwegians. The band started to write more complicated pieces. The will of the Norwegians to mark their territory beyond the usual trademarks speaks clearly from the individual pieces. The title track even manages a good 17 minutes. As with all MOTORPSYCHO albums, you have to have the patience to find your way into the sound. MOTORPSYCHO do not make it easy for themselves and the fans. The slightly fluctuating, ie weird singing of the engine psychos requires careful listening and also the willingness to deal with less catchy arrangements. The box is more than clear for the album title. There are four CDs and a DVD in the box. There's a concert on the latter, which was recorded in the Netherlands and shows very nicely the groping attempts of the band to break out of the too straightforward conditions. Percussionistically they are already demonstrating the potential on “Demon Box”, which should become their trademark at the latest with the follow-up album “Timothy's Monster”. It is also remarkable how MOTORPSYCHO, in spite of the strong alternative wave, have laid out their own path quite herb-dry. The full length of the album can be found in the box. At that time Voices Of Wonder only wanted to release a CD, why some tracks no longer fit on the album. Now the album is released on two CDs, plus the two EPs that followed the album, all sorts of outtakes that were more or less moldy somewhere in the vastness of the market. Everything has now been pressed onto CDs, including the double LP edition, which brought horrendous prices online. Now everything is fine. MOTORPSYCHO are happy, the fans anyway and Rune Grammofon can do something for the Scandinavian homeland.
Legacy (DE)
Now the third album of the Norwegian "good conscience in rock" has really become a "box". After the sprawling re-releases of the motor psycho classics "Timothy's Monster" and "Blizzard", "Demon Box" now comes in the same honor and appears as a fat 5-disc package. With the work, the band, which here, including Helge, Deathprod 'Sten, was the only official quartet, defined their own sound of psychedelic and alternative rock; it is a turning point and a guideline for everything that should come later. The box with its 4 CDs and a DVD will then put the regular album on CD for the first time as originally intended. In 1993 it was released in full only as a double vinyl, the simple compact disc was relieved by a few pieces, including the huge "Mountain", which was later released separately as an EP. Including "Gutwrench" and "Babylon & Mr. Who" (then "Babylon" in a shorter version on the CD) there is "Demon Box" "with titles that are still up-to-date and exciting today, such as" Nothing To Say "and the title track, which is over 17 minutes long, now for the first time completely on two pieces of silver. The present deluxe version of the Mo-Psy milestone contains as bonus material the long-out-of-print EPs "Mountain" and "Another Ugly" with the easy listening tune "Summertime ls Here" sounding like Burt Bacharach on Disc 3 as well as' Barities, Outtakes & live recordings' (Disc 4). On the DVD there is an adventurous, one-camera document 'from 1993, that is from the time when the band
. . You can probably leave it like that.
Eclipsed (DE)
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