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Deceased: Surreal overdose

08/09/11 || gk

Deceased has been around now for more than 25 years and “Surreal Overdose” is the band’s 6th full length. In all that time King Fowley and his band of merry men have maintained a consistency that is startling. There isn’t a single mediocre release in their discography and “Surreal Overdose” is in fact the bands best effort in a while.

Deceased play a furious brand of thrash metal with Fowley’s vocals being gruff and semi growled but always clear enough to decipher the lyrics. As the album opens with “Skin Crawling Progress” its apparent that the band has picked up a few new tricks in the 6 years between this and their last full length, 2005’s “As The Weird Travel On.” The song rages out the speakers in true Deceased style with some manic riffing and its almost like the band is losing control of the tempo till they hit a superb melodic riff halfway through that just left me grinning. The story is the same right through this album.

Every song here has at least 3 absolutely killer riffs on it and the band manage to incorporate seamless changes in riffs and tempo while always making sure the song as a whole is cohesive and makes sense. Stand out tracks include “Kindred Assembly” with its speed metal riffing and absolute control of tempo changes, “The Traumatic” which sounds like early Voivod going head to head with Razor, “Cloned (Day of the Robot)” which is propelled by Fowley’s drumming and more razor sharp riffing coupled with a superb vocal performance from Fowley, “In the Laboratory of Joyous Gloom” is a raging thrasher with excellent performances from guitarists Mike Smith and Shane Fuegel and album closer “Dying in Analog” is the album’s epic and plays like a hyper speed homage to the N.W.O.B.H.M.

The core of the band, Fowley on vocals and drums, Les Snyder on bass and guitarist Mike Smith have been together since 1993 and it shows in the music. The band employs a huge number of riffs and change-ups through each song and its done seamlessly without the slightest hint of awkwardness. The band has over time found its own unique style mixing 80’s metal from Iron Maiden to Voivod and Razor to craft a sound that is truly their own. It’s not quite thrash or death metal but it is completely heavy fucking metal the way it should be. There isn’t a single bad song here and Deceased are in top form right through “Surreal Overdose.”

If you’ve never heard Deceased before then you might be in for a surprise. Each song is crammed with killer riffs and change ups and the album requires a few listens to fully comprehend. Fowley writes pages and pages of lyrics and then fits them all into songs that average around the 6 minute mark with his vocals often half spoken and half growled rapid fire over the riffs that are always high velocity.

This is Deceased like they always are. Surreal Overdose doesn’t have the filler material that plagued “As The Weird Travel On” and it is the bands most consistent release since “Fearless Undead Machines” but chances are they will still struggle on in relative obscurity catering to the faithful few and facing indifference from the majority.

Information
Released: 2011
Label: Patac
Website: http://upthetombstones.net
Band
King Fowley: drums, vocals
Mike Smith: guitars
Shane Fuegel: guitars
Les Snyder: bass

Tracklist
01. Skin Crawling Progress
02. The Kindred Assembly
03. The Traumatic
04. Cloned (Day of the Robot)
05. Off-Kilter
06. In the Laboratory of Joyous Gloom
07. A Doom-Laden Aura
08. Dying in Analog

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