(Relapse)
True trailblazers in metallic hardcore, it’s with a bit of trepidation I welcome another album from New Jersey’s Deadguy. After all, sole full-length Fixation On A Co-worker dropped in 1995 and it’s basically perfect.
But I was mainly confident the band would do no wrong, and alas, opening track “Kill Fee” immediately proves the psychotic vitriol that fuelled Deadguy is, astonishingly, still there, with a touch more trad metal riffing to boot.
And then there’s the outrageous “Barn Burner”, which starts out more simple punk than ever before devolving into the trademark Deadguy groove-tantrum that no other band has ever come close to capturing. An amazing start, and the rest of the album is no slouch either, frantic metalcore (“New Best Friend”) butting against technical punk fury (“The Alarmist”) and even some southern/doom metal flourishes for the longhairs in “War With Strangers”. But it’s just heavy, pure heaviness, beyond metalcore and beyond any amount of heavy that most metal bands can deliver.
When powerhouse vocalist Tim Singer belts out that “The party’s over/but I can’t go home/to a burning building”, there’s no doubting the power of this record, massive jagged riffs supported by frantic but solid drumming, vocals strained to the point of cracking (“Cheap Trick”), just total honesty set to chaos.
Deadguy have done their legacy proud here, and the total sideways discomfort ending of “Wax Princess” leaves me excited for even more.
Rating: 9.0
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