Surreal Overdose
Deceased
The pursuit for the logic can be endless and even futile, like searching a needle in a haystack only to find along the way heaps of distortions, a whole lot of confusion and clutter, plenty of disorder. The only thing that one can ask himself is where does all this end, probably never. I just pictured you how my brain was trying to work while I listened to the new album of the veteran American Death / Thrash Metal band DECEASED for Virginia. My knowledge of their early releases such as "Luck Of The Corpse" and "The 13 Frightened Souls" EP, didn't prepare me for this new album named "Surreal Overdose", released via AreaDeath Productions. As if time almost hasn't tarnished their will, like a demon possessing a mad man in a closed asylum, DECEASED made me feel that malice and lunacy are in the house and all I needed to do was to open the door and attach the electrodes that will enter me to mayhem land. On the other hand, that all around feel was sometimes a tad too much for my taste and it had its effect on me throughout the listening sessions.
When I talked about time and its inflictions on DECEASED, led by the notorious and infamous Drummer / Vocalist King Fowley, it did do something to the band's music. Though still rampaging at will, and providing a murderous horror show of repulsion, with high energies as if doped on speeds, "Surreal Overdose" turned out to be more melodic, infused with bursting soloing quite regularly by the two cracking guitarists, and highly more diverse deathly music, in particular the rhythms, than the band's early crazes and horror infused tunes of the early 90s (I have no previous knowledge of their recent endeavours so bear with me). I found "The Traumatic" and the horrendous epic "Dying in Analog" pretty distorted but within their foreboding mania, I could find some sense and chunks of flair. Without a doubt DECEASED's music is like scrambled eggs, as if the band wanted to throw everything into a big pile and use it for their needs, however as something scrambled, the end results evidently will turn out scrambled and in DECEASED's case messy as hell with musical sections and passages that made me feel that those actually were roughly sown together as if were organs of a newborn monstrosity. In the bottom line, there were riffages and sections that just didn't add up in the songs. There was a lack of flow throughout the tracks and it ached me because I could feel the amount of effort smeared around. Nevertheless the melodies played their part with finesse, and I can't really argue with the soloing that was frickin insane.
Fans of early 90s DECEASED will not a doubt like this horrific party in the black sun. "Surreal Overdose" can be taken as a massive blow to the head with a six ton jackhammer. It is explosive and can be reckoned as complex no doubt about it, yet in way it has its bewildered unevenness that sometimes makes it hard to handle.
6 / 10
Had Potential
"Surreal Overdose" Track-listing:
1. Skin Crawling Progress
2. Kindred Assembly
3. The Traumatic
4. Cloned (Day of the Robot)
5. Off-Kilter
6. In the Laboratory of Joyous Gloom
7. A Doom-Laden Aura
8. Dying in Analog
Deceased Lineup:
Mike Smith- Guitar
King Fowley- Drums / Vocals
Les Snyder- Bass
Shane Fuegal- Guitar
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