The name Otto Kinzel may well be a mystery to you but nothing compared to the name of the infamous Zodiac Killer who terrorized the Bay Area communities and law enforcement agencies in the late '60s and early '70s, killing seven (confirmed) victims but claiming to have taken the lives of thirty seven in taunting letters to the local media, all while his identity remained a mystery.

Kinzel, a veteran of several New England metal and industrial bands, has now released this, his first solo album, a dark concept record based on the Zodiac case that features amongst its lyrics excerpts of actual communication between the killer and the press.

It's an ambitious project, for sure, and a difficult undertaking at that. Spoken word passages collide with crazed time changes as Kinzel strives for a "cinematic narrative" for the record. He achieves it too, to a degree, even if the finished article hardly makes for comfortable listening.

The heavier, more metallic, moments hit like a blunt instrument; the moodier pieces actually impressing more if you allow yourself to be absorbed by the record as a whole. The bands from the Bay Area metal scene may well find themselves represented at times but Kinzel seems much more at ease messing up heads with a major Zappa/Mike Patton influence, at their most eclectic, obviously. With some meatier production values behind him Otto could make a real monster.

Impressively ambitious and out there though not something you would listen to as you were getting ready to go out....unless, of course, you were getting ready to go out to kill.

A real curio.

www.ottokinzel.com