by Tracy Heck

Created on: September 28, 2009

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

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