Noise Annoys
The purification of Boyd Rice
By Skylaire Alfvegren - LA Weekly: Wednesday, April 29, 1998 - 12:00 am
As a member of the Council of Nine, the Church of Satan's governing body, Rice has frequently tormented Christian muckraker Bob Larson, appearing on his radio program and on his TBN show. With the recent death of the church's founder, Anton LaVey, Larson invited LaVey's estranged daughter on the show to badmouth the "Wickedest Man in the World." Rice refused Larson's last invitation to appear on the show. "Larson's the best advertising I've ever gotten," he says, "and I'm good advertising for him as well. But my loyalties lie with Anton."
Rice moved to Denver nearly a decade ago, where he deejays once a week at the Lion's Lair, located on the block that once housed the Denver Playboy Club. On the verge of bankruptcy, two bartenders purchased the Lair from the aging Mr. Lyons, who expired the day after the contract was sealed. "It was like a geriatric ward when I first started going there," says Rice. He chuckles. "Now that my friends own it, I don't want to refer to it as a 'dive.'"
December saw the release of God and Beast, the purest NON disc in a decade. It marks Rice's first collaboration with a producer, veteran Ken Thomas, who has worked with everyone from Laibach to Paul McCartney. The album is simultaneously polished and raw, Thomas applying his Spectoresque techniques to barbaric vignettes like "Between Venus and Mars" and "The Law." God and Beast also includes the only studio versions of NON classics "Out Out Out" and "Total War." Rice was made aware of their longstanding impact during last year's tour of Europe. "After I'd finish, people would chant, 'Total war!' and drag my kettledrum onstage, pounding out the rhythm with their fists."
What does the title God and Beast signify? "In a Promethean sense," says Rice, "it's the idea that man is God because he has created his whole world. But in a more fundamental way he's a beast, and these two elements of his personality have been at war with one another throughout the history of mankind. I believe we can find the place in the soul where God and beast intersect."
When that occurs, you can be sure Boyd Rice will be there directing traffic.
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