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"Death is just the beginning!"

Rufus Rex is a Solo Side Project by Curtis Rx of Creature Feature. So far with one album, Dead Beat. Released on October 11, 2011, the album is a story about a man trying to uncover the secret of immortality and banish the nuisance of death, only to unleash a Lovecraftian demon upon the world, and eventually finds himself the last living person on earth.

Tracklist

  1. "Rise Lazarus Rise" (4:30)
  2. "Personal Demons" (3:34)
  3. "From the Dust Returned A Titan" (4:45)
  4. "Buckets Of Blood" (3:24)
  5. "Worlds In-Between" (4:17)
  6. "Ingenious Forms Of Torture" (3:15)
  7. "Body In Revolt" (3:58)
  8. "Miss Me To Death" (3:19)
  9. "Dead Air" (3:34)
  10. "You'll Never Guess" (3:13)

Personnel

  • Curtis RX: vocals, guitar, bass, organ, keyboards, percussion
  • Victor Fuentes: drums, percussion

Ingenious Forms Of Tropes

  • The Aloner: The protagonist is this by the end of the album. According to "Dead Air," he uses a radio to try and find some sign of life.:
    Turned on the radio.
    It's no use, there's no one left.
    A search for life now
    Within the dead air.
  • Alliterative Title: "Rise Lazarus Rise" and Buckets Of Blood".
  • Bad Powers, Good People: Follows a good necromancer trying to cure death.
  • Body Horror: "Body in Revolt" appears to be about reanimation...from the formerly dead's point of view. In other words, imagining that it would feel like for your lifeless body to be revived. It isn't pretty:
    My eyes, they burn,
    My flesh, it bleeds.
    My stomach, it turns,
    And the darkness proceeds.
    The end is near,
    The uprising is here,
    Now my body's committing mutiny.
  • Cold-Blooded Torture: "Ingenious Forms of Torture"
  • Concept Album: The album is a horror story told throughout the tracks.
  • Curiosity Is a Crapshoot: A major theme of the album. By the final track, "You'll Never Guess", the narrator is...
    Not one for diggin' up the past
    I say let old ghosts die
    And the bones in the closet must be
    Hung out to dry
  • Design Student's Orgasm: The album cover was designed by Thomas Boatwright.
  • Eldritch Abomination: Whatever it is the protagonist accidentally resurrects, it's worthy of two songs: "From the Dust Returned a Titan," and "Worlds In-Between"
  • Gainax Ending: After the bitter lamentation of "Miss Me To Death" and the desolation of "Dead Air," we're given the inappropriately upbeat and cheerful "You'll Never Guess," which is about someone finding... something hidden in various places in a clearly pre-apocalyptic world.
  • "I Am" Song: "Personal Demons," where the narrator describes his own mental breakdown ("I am not right in the head, nowhere near a full deck - maybe my parade is lead slightly off beat?")
  • Keeper of Forbidden Knowledge: The protagonist of Dead Beat, trying to find to secret of immortality.
  • Locked in the Dungeon: Alluded to in "Ingenious Forms Of Torture"
  • Lyrical Dissonance: Every song on Dead Beat. Every. Single. One. Each song is set to a relatively upbeat melody, but has depressing or disturbing lyrics.
  • Mood Dissonance: The last song on "Dead Beat," called "You'll Never Guess." First, there's the Lyrical Dissonance (pretty much a given), in that it's apparently about finding bodies hidden around a house. However, while all the other songs on the album have been rock tunes, "You'll Never Guess" is an acoustic number.
  • Mummy: A mummy rising from its grave is seen on the cover.
  • Necromancer: The protagonist. "Rise, Lazarus Rise" depicts the benefit of this kind of magic: nobody has to ever die again if only he can figure out how. It of course Goes Horribly Wrong and he ends up summoning Cthulhu instead.
  • Never Trust a Title: "Buckets of Blood" sounds violent; it really isn't. The song is more about insanity than violence - in other words, it sounds like it should be related to "Ingenious Forms of Torture," when it's more of a sequel to "Personal Demons."
  • Resurrection Sickness "Body in Revolt."
  • Rock Opera: The album tells a continuous story.
  • Sanity Slippage Song: "Personal Demons"
    • "Buckets of Blood" as well, though arguably. If "Personal Demons" is Sanity Slippage, then "Buckets of Blood" is delirium and/or hysteria:
    Leave me here to wallow
    In my delusions
    In these phantoms I'll find conclusions
    I won't stop until there's blood.
  • Solo Side Project: Curtis Rx released this solo album while still a member of Creature Feature.
  • Spoken Word in Music: The opening of "Worlds In-Between" has this spoken exchange, sampled from the movie The Brain That Wouldn't Die:
    ...tried to play God...
    It's part of the game.
    Some choices are not yours to make!
  • Stock Shout-Out: "Rise Lazarus Rise" With a story about reanimation, an allusion to the man whom Jesus raised from the dead is practically required.
  • Tar and Feathers: One of many methods alluded to in "Ingenious Forms of Torture"
  • Through the Eyes of Madness: Possibly, though the protagonist does acknowledge that he's losing it in the opening lines of "Personal Demons:"
    Psychosis must be setting in,
    Clouding my perception.
    Social interaction null and void.
    Contact with reality
    Is something I no longer need -
    Now I have insanity on my side!


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