Alien Sex Fiend’s ‘It the Album’ turns 40 on 1 October
Alien Sex Fiend’s “It the Album” turns 40 this year. The English gothic rock band released the record in October 1986 on Anagram Records.
Alien Sex Fiend released their fourth studio album, “It the Album”, on 1 October 1986 through Anagram Records. The English gothic rock and deathrock band’s record turns 40 this year, arriving during a run that had already put five of the group’s albums and twelve of their singles into the UK Independent Chart’s top 20.
“It the Album” was recorded in 1986 and co-produced by Nik Fiend with Peter McGhee, an engineer known for his work with Whitehouse and Nurse With Wound. The original vinyl and cassette editions ran eight tracks: “Smells Like…”, “Manic Depression”, “Believe It or Not”, “April Showers”, “Wop Bop”, “Get into It”, “Lesson One”, “Do It Right” and “To Be Continued…”. The 1986 cassette version paired the album with the band’s full 1985 release, “Maximum Security”. A 1990 CD reissue, titled “It (The CD)”, added three further tracks: “Buggin’ Me…”, a cover of Red Krayola’s “Hurricane Fighter Plane” and “It Lives Again”.
By the time of recording, guitarist John Freshwater had left the band, leaving Nik Fiend, Mrs Fiend and David James (Yaxi Highrizer) to complete the album as a trio. The group toured the record’s release year as support to Alice Cooper on his “The Nightmare Returns” tour. Trouser Press later described “It the Album” as “unquestionably the group’s most creative, mind-expanding undertaking”, a reading echoed by its ongoing catalogue presence on Discogs, where the release carries an average rating of 4.21 out of 5 from more than 270 collector reviews.
Alien Sex Fiend’s ‘It the Album’ tracklist and credits
The album cover was painted by frontman Nik Fiend, with mastering by George Peckham. Streaming and digital platforms, including Spotify, carry the 11-track CD-reissue sequence.
About Alien Sex Fiend
Alien Sex Fiend formed in London in late 1982 at the Batcave club, where Nik Fiend (Nicholas Wade) worked. The founding lineup paired Nik Fiend with Christine Wade (Mrs Fiend), David James (Yaxi Highrizer) and John Freshwater (Johnnie Ha Ha). Nik Wade had previously played in the Alice Cooper-influenced bands the Earwigs and Mr & Mrs Demeanour, and later the punk band Demon Preacher.
A cassette recorded with Youth of Killing Joke, “The Lewd, the Mad, the Ugly and Old Nick”, brought the band early UK music press attention, as did the track “R.I.P.” on the 1983 Batcave club compilation “The Batcave: Young Limbs and Numb Hymns”, issued by London Records. Alien Sex Fiend signed to Cherry Red’s Anagram Records imprint and released their first single, “Ignore the Machine”, in August 1983; it reached number 6 on the UK Independent Chart. Their debut album, “Who’s Been Sleeping in My Brain”, followed on Anagram on 1 November 1983, with “Acid Bath” arriving in 1984. That October, the band issued “E.S.T. (Trip to the Moon)” as what is credited as the world’s first 11″ single, and recorded two BBC Peel Sessions during the year.
Third album “Maximum Security” reached number 100 on the UK Albums Chart in October 1985, while singles “Dead and Buried” (1984) and a reissued “Ignore the Machine” (1985) also placed in the UK top 100. A 1985 live album, “Liquid Head in Tokyo”, documented the band’s following in Japan. Freshwater left later that year, and the remaining trio supported Alice Cooper’s “The Nightmare Returns” tour in 1986 before releasing “It the Album” that October. James departed after 1987’s “Here Cum Germs”, reducing the band to the Wades as a duo.
In early 1988, the Wades recorded the one-off single “Batman Theme” with engineer Len Davies before releasing “Another Planet” in November 1988, expanding the group’s use of electronics and sampling. Drummer/guitarist Andrew Wilson (Rat Fink Jr.) and keyboardist/guitarist Simon “Doc” Milton joined in 1989, debuting on the live album “Too Much Acid?” and remaining for 1990’s “Curse” and 1992’s “Open Head Surgery” before departing that year. The Wades continued as a duo, scoring the Digital Image Design video game “Inferno” in 1994, and in the mid-1990s saw their “Zombified” video air on MTV’s “Beavis and Butthead”. In 1996 they launched their own label, 13th Moon, issuing “Nocturnal Emissions” (1997), “Information Overload” (2004) and “Death Trip” (2010). Alien Sex Fiend released “Possessed”, their first album in eight years, on Cherry Red on 9 November 2018. Forty years on from “It the Album”, the band’s October 1986 release remains a fixture of the deathrock and gothic rock catalogue it helped shape.
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