''High Priest of Love'' is a 1986 EP and second studio release by

Zodiac Mindwarp and the Love Reaction Zodiac Mindwarp and the Love Reaction are a British hard rock group, which was formed in 1985. Zodiac Mindwarp and the Love Reaction play a sleazy style of commercial hard rock featuring big riffs and choruses, as was the trend in the band ...

. This EP was released soon after Zodiac had signed with Phonogram Records. A video for the title track, directed by Andy Lee, was issued during the summer compiling live footage of the band. The band secured an opening slot for Motörhead to support the release. The title track was included on the ''

Return of the Living Dead Part II ''Return of the Living Dead Part II'' is a 1988 American comedy horror film written and directed by Ken Wiederhorn, and starring Michael Kenworthy, Marsha Dietlein, Dana Ashbrook, Thom Mathews, James Karen, and Phil Bruns. It is the first of fo ...

'' movie soundtrack in 1988, and was also covered in 1990 by British neo-Nazi band No Remorse on their album ''Blood Against Gold''.

Critical reception

Donald McRae of ''

New Musical Express ''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming, and culture website and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a 'rock inkie', the NME would become a magazine that ended up as a f ...

'' named band as "competent crud" and an album as "ridiculously mannered, mildly funny and ultimately useless piece of rock product". '' Sounds'' reacted in an opposite way. Jack Barron was impressed by Mindwarp's "wicked wit". He described music as "six-legged riff monster so cliched it makes your aesthetic ears blush, yet so crude it crushes your ribs with equal doses of cartoon humour and occasional flashes of raw power". Reviewer summarized: "And with the scathing tongue of a Lydon, the speed-scorched larynx of a

Lemmy Ian Fraser Kilmister (24 December 1945 – 28 December 2015), better known as Lemmy Kilmister or simply Lemmy, was an English musician. He was the founder, lead singer, bassist and primary songwriter of the rock band Motörhead, of which he wa ...

and the deep throat of a Beefheart, all Zodiac wants to do is put his love gun in your mouth and blow your head off. Your finger is on his trigger". As a result, in the end of the year ''Sounds'' writers included EP into their list of the most important, influential and significant albums of 1986 with recognition that "Zodiac, the delinquent genius whose poetic prose and codpiece colossus thrilled the girlies and chilled the guys; Slam, the garbage man who thinks he's the new messiah on drums; Cobalt, a guitarist who quit Wham! when they introduced minor chords, dismissing them as poofs; and Kid, a teenage Dennis the Menace with spunk stains up his AC/DC T-shirt". "1986 was their year and no one else's".

Track listing

Credits

Zodiac Mindwarp and The Love Reaction * Zodiac Mindwarp – Vocals * Cobalt Stargazer – Guitars * Kid Chaos – Bass * Slam Thunderhide – Drums Production * David Balfe – producer

Critical reception

Track listing

Credits

References

Further reading