Monster Magnet Grinds Up and Pumps Out Sublime Metal

Monster Magnet seems to exist in a world circumscribed by comic books, psychoactive drugs and cheap women. The New Jersey quintet’s music revels in sleaze and flaunts taboos, and at the Troubadour on Tuesday the band operated on sonic overload, pumping out its extreme metal as if it were industrial bilge.

In many respects, Monster Magnet’s transgressive antics are a throwback to such ‘60s agitators as the MC5, albeit without the radical politics. Like that band, Monster Magnet knows how to turn big, dumb guitar riffs into sublime trash, and such songs as “Drug Farm” and “Space Lord” hung on elemental blues-rock chord progressions that were stamped out with robotic precision and ear-splitting volume by guitarist Ed Mundel. All of the tempos were insistently sluggish, like Black Sabbath on lithium. And very little room was left for self-indulgence, lest any band member break through the monolith with a solo.

Despite the appealing purity of this sleaze-core aesthetic, the live show hinges on frontman Dave Wyndorf’s obnoxious charisma. Looking like Bela Lugosi as a Hells Angel, he spun out monologues about cheap thrills in cheaper hotel rooms, shone a spotlight in the audience’s eyes, and screamed bloody murder until his neck muscles stood at attention. It was all strangely riveting and overwrought in equal measure.

Second-billed Kid Rock is a white rapper who backed up his silly, potty-mouthed rants with derivative funk-metal riffs. Where’s Tipper Gore when you really need her?