“As made blatantly obvious in my first review of 2015, last year left me drained, beaten, and more fucked over than a single person can stand. So, it is only fitting that Hellbastard’s brutally honest and extremely pissed-off Feral allowed me the opportunity to let everything go, smash shit, speed recklessly down the highway, and drop a big “fuck you” to all the bullshit.” Go fookin coconuts!
Here’s one that not only got past me but completely flew under my radar, leaving me unaware of its release for over a month (stealth release under the cover of darkness brought to you by PATAC Records) . If I wasn’t already a fan of Deceased I would shrug it off, but since I am, I feel shame, rage, regret and finally, acceptance (of the rage and regret). Deceased have been around a long time and their fusion of death, thrash and classic metal was a big part of my 90’s listening rotation (if you never heard their classic Fearless Undead Machines release, you missed out bigtime). Their last full length was way back in 2005 and I although I clearly missed the secret memo they had a new one ready to go, Surreal Overdose is worth the long wait and its a real winner. Bringing back their berserk, ravenous thrash style, things get crazy quicker than you can say “Gwar mates with Lady Gaga in her giant egg chamber” (which I would pay to see BTW). Songs like “Skin Crawling Process” are raging thrash anthems with a touch of old school death and traditional heavy metal woven in. There are Slayeresque riffs, whammy bar molestation and King Fowley’s unmistakable raspy shouts. “Kindred Assembly” has blast beats and nonstop, throat gnawing aggression that’s bound to get the blood all angered up. “Cloned (Day of the Robot)” has trilling, melodic leads and memorable riffing throughout, sometimes sounding like Iron Maiden, sometimes like Slayer. Every track here blazes away with an insane, manic intensity that will remind older metal fans of how the early thrash albums sounded and felt.
