Puscifer released their debut, “V” Is for Vagina, on October 30, 2007. Money Shot followed on October 30, 2015, and Existential Reckoning arrived on October 30, 2020. The shared date connects their first, third and fourth studio albums, but the more revealing connection is how the work changed between them. Recording around a touring schedule eventually gave way to a closer writing partnership and deliberate experiments with unfamiliar equipment.
That first record was assembled wherever time allowed. In a 2015 interview with Phoenix New Times, Maynard James Keenan recalled grabbing studio time on days off and recording on buses and in dressing rooms. He connected the album’s scattered character to those circumstances, while recognizing an identity beginning to emerge. “But our signature was starting to shine through,” he said. “Momma Sed” was among the songs on that debut.
By Money Shot, Carina Round had become more involved earlier in the writing. She, Keenan and Mat Mitchell shared songwriting credits on nine of its ten songs. Round told the same publication that increased trust had given her greater freedom, including opportunities to work directly with Keenan on how their vocal parts would fit together.
Keenan also described the record through his life in Jerome, Arizona. The debut had reflected travel; this album was rooted in his relationship with one place. That closer collaboration produced a record containing “Grand Canyon,” “The Arsonist” and “The Remedy.”
The next change began with an instrument Mitchell wanted to find while touring Money Shot. He told American Songwriter in 2020 that records by Ministry, Frankie Goes to Hollywood and Art of Noise had helped draw him toward the Fairlight CMI II. Its restrictions became useful writing tools for Existential Reckoning. Working with unfamiliar equipment disrupted the choices he could make almost automatically on guitar. For “Bread and Circus,” he initially built the song using an eight-track sequencer before bringing in a laptop to add bass.
That process also helps explain why the album’s electronics were part of its construction from the beginning. Mitchell described continually sharing sounds, loops and arrangements for Keenan and Round to develop. “Apocalyptical” emerged from that collaboration, with one timing detail that mattered when it appeared in 2020: Mitchell said its lyrics had been written the previous year. Its release during the pandemic didn’t make it a song written about the pandemic.
Puscifer gave those recording experiments a fictional world to inhabit. The album announcement took the form of an office memorandum about the disappearance of Billy D, casting Mitchell and Round as agents and Keenan as Dick Merkin. Behind that presentation, the production credits were straightforward: Mitchell and Puscifer produced the record, which Mitchell recorded and mixed at Puscifer Studios in North Hollywood. The sessions also included contributions from Greg Edwards, Gunnar Olsen and Sarah Jones.
The release extended into a performance of the complete album at Arcosanti, the experimental community in Arizona. Existential Reckoning: Live at Arcosanti premiered on the record’s release day, placing the music against the site’s distinctive architecture and desert surroundings. The performance also became a separate release: its soundtrack and digital film arrived on November 12, 2021, alongside Billy D and the Hall of Feathered Serpents Featuring Money $hot. That companion production returned to Money Shot at Los Angeles’ Mayan Theater, bringing two of Puscifer’s October 30 records into connected concert films.
