Babylon Mystery Orchestra is in fact a veritable one man band and the man in question goes under the name of Sydney Allen Johnson and he writes and produces everything himself in a self-confessed, “politically incorrect,” way. In fact he suggests that Crusader is the, “most politically incorrect song ever.” There will be more about that song later but it took me a long time to work out what I wanted to say about Axis of Evil ... so here goes. 

As somewhat of a wishy-washy Guardian reading liberal myself it wouldn’t be unfair to suggest that my own political views are waaaaaaaaay to the left of Mr Johnson’s but I have no problem whatsoever with his right to say what he says. In places I very much enjoyed his musical vision, however, speaking critically, I found it all a little one paced after a while. 

One thing that is impressive though is the packaging of Axis of Evil in which Johnson imparts his world view using scriptures and wise (and not so wise) words from the great and the good. Clearly Johnson is of the far right Christian ilk and espouses what many imagine millions of Americans think – look who their President is! Musically he says it through a mixture of doom and thrash with a rumbling (occasionally) and monotonous vocal style. 

Perhaps the main sticking point I have with Axis of Evil is in the predictability of the songs – some more upbeat tunes wouldn’t have gone amiss but some of them are bizarrely memorable. I honestly can’t remember the last time I wandered humming, “Jihad is on the horizon,” to myself! Crusader isn’t as good as the Saxon song of the same name but no doubt some may well be upset by the exhortations to, “Kill ‘em all,” but in this day and age it takes a certain amount of balls to go out on such a limb – good guitar work on this song as well. This is pretty extreme in terms of the subject matter but no more than say the works of Deicide who bat for the other guy but if you can get past that it has a certain merit.

Simon Bray