Dawn of the Deaf
The Outside
•
February 22, 2015

While members may be from various countries worldwide, Germany-based Thrashers, THE OUTSIDE delivers their solid 2014 full-length, "Dawn of the Deaf", a must-hear album for fans of political-oriented Thrash that also brings seasonings of Progressive structures to the table. This album is both melodic and fiercely rhythm-driven throughout its entirety with a fiery, Anti-central government thesis maintained from start to finish. Fans of the likes of TESTAMENT, MEGADETH and even NEVERMORE, you do not want to overlook this album!
The clean-toned intro, "Defy" runs the first 34 seconds of the album with tightly knitted melodies and rhythm with only guitar and bass, ending with distorted guitar fading in just in time to start one of the album's several gems, "End of Trust". "End of Trust" begins with a strong rhythm section and classic Thrash/early European-modeled guitar riffs the vast majority of us have come to enjoy and even thrive on for the past 30-40 years. The next two tracks run just as heavy and have caught your attention almost completely just in time for the album's fifth track, "To the Innocent", to return you to calmer, more melodic passages and an ever-strong rhythm section. The next track that especially caught my attention was, "Ashes". This one is by far the most lyrically aggressive track on the album, especially at the beginning which basically is a short sample passage that calls out world leaders in a rather fierce manner and makes you almost want to get up off your ass and go topple some ivory towers so to speak! It's definitely a great "Rise! Rebel! Resist! Revolt!" anthem supported by excellent musicianship and arrangement! You don't want to overlook that track, not one second of it! The next to final track, "New Disorder" opens with a super-groovy bass riff that greatly resembles the rhetoric of Thrash bands that had more prominent elements of Hardcore Punk such as ANTHRAX and SUICIDAL TENDENCIES, so there's definitely no ignoring this beast of a track! "Dawn of the Deaf" then comes to a close with "Of a Nation" thus sealing the deal on being a successful political-themed album that I am very certain would grab the attention of big names out there such as ICED EARTH, KREATOR and HELLOWEEN considering a lot of their newer material tends to hit a lot of the same topics.
While this album is more than solid in both musicianship and lyrical themes/content, one thing I noticed throughout was the lack of vocal range present from Roland B. Marx. They do however make up for it by being both powerful and even commanding as well as getting the full message of each track across to the listener, so it isn't necessarily a reason to lost interest or pick at it too much. After all, it would be incredibly boring if everyone sounded like Rob Halford, Bruce Dickinson, Matt Barlow (although he is accredited for being pitch perfect) or Ozzy Osbourne.
7 / 10
Good

"Dawn of the Deaf" Track-listing:
1. Defy
2. End of Trust
3. When Leaders Fall
4. Until the World Takes Us
5. To the Innocent
6. Dawn of the Deaf
7. Ashes
8. In Decadence
9. New Disorder
10. Of a Nation
The Outside Lineup:
Roland B. Marx - Vocals
Sergio Klein - Guitar
Ishay Sommer - Bass
Alberto Atalah - Drums
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