If Mr. Bungle ever became active again and decided to do a completely quirky piss take on the current modern metalcore/post hardcore scene, The Mod Flanders Conspiracy would have the unique privilege of saying they'd already done it. While in essence the bands mixture of funk, metal, jazz and various other off the wall genres does bring to mind the infamous Patton led project, their focus on more modern metal aspects leave them in an odd position where their music is still completely mental, yet somehow strangely appealing to the youth of today.

It's not hard to see from the song titles that the band are playing music to have fun, but to write them off as a bunch of punk kids just fucking around would be nearly criminal when considering the actual talent they exhibit on this release. To put it bluntly, these boys can play their instruments and play them they do with some cleverly written pieces emerging on more than one occasion. The fact that the band do sound serious in their intent and actually inject some heart wrenching emotion into their craft is just the icing on the cake as it puts a whole new spin on the this more eclectic spectrum of heavier music.

While nearly every song is extremely ambitious in scope and a lot of traditionally oriented musicianship in the form of funk, jazz and other genres is detectable in structuring, the band generally stay heavily rooted in vitriolic aggression, screaming and thrashing out with the best of them and it is in fact this darker side that keeps them from sounding outright cartoonish. Undoubtedly not many will understand what they are trying to do, one may even justifiably question if they even know what they're doing themselves, but for what its worth "...The Tragic Urn Spill..." is a refreshing journey into the unknown that despite being rough around the edges, is still a great escape from the everyday routine.