### Dr. Living Dead!: Radioactive intervention

#### 18/03/13 || Ironpants

Crossing the borders…

You can get a doctors degree in just about anything, and I slowly wonder what a doctor in the living dead would do? Does he have a practice where zombies can show up with their broken limbs and rotten odor from their feet? Or is he a doctor in reviving the dead into a zombie state? Or is the doctor himself a living dead? Regardless the meaning, it’s a corny band name, but I guess it doesn’t really matter in the end of the day?

Another corny feature about this band, is that they jump the bandwagon of being masked and anonymous, which always raise a flag. Are they masked because of the fact that they don’t really wanna be connected with the style and music, or are they masked as a gimmick? My strong and firm belief about masked bands is that it doesn’t matter if you’re Kiss, Slipknot, Ghost and even Dragged into Sunlight, for when it comes down to business, you still have to deliver good and proper music. No band can live on the masked image alone (except maybe Gwar?). I don’t really know if Dr. Living Dead is super-secret to the length that they will bust a cap in yo ass if you catch them unmasked, but they seem to incorporate it to the fullest?

Crossover thrash is a style I reckon a lot of people have a love/hate relationship with. There hasn’t been that many bands through history sporting the skills to pull it off. Suicidal Tendencies may be the most successful, but bands like D.R.I. and Nuclear Assault and more recent Municipal Waste are the ones that pop into mind. Nowadays, it’s not the top of the line music among the kiddos. My relationship with the genre ended somewhere in time when I was caught messing around with the luscious ladies that we today call death and black metal. But just as with real life relationships, now and then you bump into your ex-girlfriend around town and you stop for a chat. Dr. Living Dead can very much be that ex-girlfriend of yours, that has slimmed down a couple of kilos, started using a new make up technique and bought her self a pair of silicon jugglers. And suddenly you want to do more than just chat for a while, you want to get into it again, if only just for a quick roll in the hay.

Dr. Living Dead cooks up a speedy, lively and energetic kind of crossover, with a large dose of early Anthrax influenced thrash topped off with some serious riffing. It is hard to sit completely still (or stand up, lie down, bend over, whatever you fancy). This is the kind of band that is the perfect support act for a major band, they can probably whip up a 50 people moshpit in no time, and the main act would be on their toes, afraid that their support act has stolen the show. I’ve seen a few live clips with these fellows and if they appear at a live stage near my domains, I will most certainly go and see them.

Their first album caused, maybe not a big buzz, but at least some stir in the scene. At least around those people still into this kind of music. The follow up here isn’t really the same sensation, but still as close as you’re gonna get by today’s measures in this genre. On this second coming you get 12 songs of pure energy with tight riffing, and a solid rhythm section. They only break it down to mid-pace in a couple of songs. The vocals presented by Dr. Ape is two dimensional where he sounds like typical era thrash vocals and a “Cyco-Mike” Muir kind of voice. Both works fine and I have no complains in this department. What’s the problem then? Well, as easy as it is to dig this party starter, it is equally easy to forget what you just listened to. There is really no song that gets stuck and keeps repeating itself in your feeble head. You enjoy it for the moment, but then it’s gone…

They deliver some action music that is fun to listen to, you get a bit excited and into party mode. Sadly that is all that’s gonna happen. You won’t write text messages to all your buddies about this, nor will you listen to this every day and go berserk around your apartment. Well, maybe you will, but in that case you most probably have some other issues to take care of as well.

But if you like crossover thrash and you cant wait to jump on the skateboard in your knee high socks wearing a OG cap and a top buttoned flannel shirt, this is the shit! But if you are like me, a more casual listener, this will certainly do when you and your pals pour some beers down the hatch and you want some party thrash music. But when push comes to shove, you remember your ex-girlfriends tendency to fart in her sleep, and that annoying stare she always gave you when you wanted to look at hockey and she wanted to look at “Friends”.

- Information
- Released: 2012
- Label: High Roller Records
- Website: Dr. Living Dead Facebook
- Band
- Dr. Ape: vocals
- Dr. Toxic: guitars
- Dr. Rad: bass
- Dr. Dawn: drums

- Tracklist
- 01. Radioactive intervention
- 02. You’re lost
- 03. Signs from the other side
- 04. Meaning of life
- 05. They live
- 06. Bearer of truth
- 07. Suffering
- 08. Mental warzone
- 09. Life sucks
- 10. Hiding inside of me
- 11. Timeless
- 12. Dead new world