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The Accüsed: Grinning like an undertaker

17/02/10 || Wooderson

While organizing and reorganizing my music collection a couple of weeks ago I came across this gem. Now, I hate to sound like one of those bastards that lives in the past BUT holy shit, this kicked my ass 20 years ago and still does today.

A quick search on GD revealed there were no reviews for The Accüsed, I obviously decided to correct this injustice.

Along with bands like D.R.I., Cryptic Slaughter and Ludichrist, The Accüsed had a following on both sides of the metaphorical fence that separated the punk and metal crowds. Call them thrash, punk, hardcore, metal or crossover (I feel this represents them best), The Accüsed ripped a few asses in their day and “Grinning Like An Undertaker” is their crowning achievement.

From start to finish, the album is dominated by punk infused thrash riffs supplied by Tommy Niemeyer and they cause some serious neckwrecking damage. His tone fits perfectly with the genre and the songs “Pounding Nails (Into The Lid Of Your Coffin)” and “Grinning Like An Undertaker” show Tommy at his best. The drumming is also stellar and as much as I enjoy the riffs on here, I feel Josh Snider’s talent is the main attraction. He’s simply one of the tightest drummers I’ve ever heard and plays with a lot of feel that comes through in each song. From up-tempo thrash beats to just being a busy bastard, Josh Snider is just fucken awesome.

One thing that really distinguishes The Accüsed from a lot of other bands are the vocals. Blaine Cook’s manic shrieking is reminiscent of a dry heave and it’s because of this there are some people out there who won’t dig ‘em. He falls into that too punk for metal, too metal for punk category. Think of John Tardy with more of a punk snarl, less growl and probably a bit more body odor.I myself love everything about the vocals and as soon as you hear him, you know who you’re listening to.

The cover of “Boris The Spider” by The Who is great and The Accüsed really make it their own. It’s a little disturbing how well they pull this off but it’s not nearly as creepy as Pete Townshend and his questionable collection of photographs. The Accüsed always had a knack for covering classics and this one is no exception.

The only thing that on this album that I have a problem with is the song, “Down & Out”. It’s a rap/funk/metal hybrid monstrosity that a lot of other bands were also doing at the time and just like the other bands, it’s fucken terrible. Sacred Reich had “31 Flavors”, Infectious Grooves existed and The Accüsed had this pile of steaming excrement. Was it a requirement to put this on the album in order for Nastymix (primarily a hip-hop label) to release it? Who the fuck knows…just hit SKIP when this one comes up.

To sum it up, The Accüsed kicked some ass on here and I highly suggest hunting this fucker down and making the purchase. I defy you to not bang your head while giving this a listen!

Information
Released: 1990
Label: Nastymix
Website: The Accüsed MySpace
Band
Blaine: vocals
Alex: bass
Josh: drums
Tommy: guitars

Tracklist
01. Pounding Nails (Into the Lid of Your Coffin)
02. Bullet Ridden Bodies
03. The Corpse Walks
04. Grinning (Like an Undertaker)
05. Down & Out (Featuring the Mad Poet)
06. Cut & Dried
07. Dropping Like Flies
08. M Is for Martha
09. Room 144
10. When I Was a Child
11. The Night
12. Voices
13. Boris the Spider
14. Tapping the Vein

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