This album starts off with the massive “Seizure and Desist”. Right off the bat, I love the very straightforward, panic alert of an intro. And with all the insanity that follows, we basically needed that. The playing on this track is absolutely thunderous, with Dave Lombardo on drums. Then we had Mike Patton’s vocals which are the perfect balance of theatrical and over-the-top, while also remaining brutal enough to carry these metal verses. I don’t know about you, but I think this track is a freakin' blast. Mike just seems totally at home between all of this complete destruction and insanity. “Seizure and Desist” is one hell of an opener. Up next is “Idiopathic”, and I love just how tight this band continues to sound. This may be the first studio recordings were getting from Dead Cross, but they sound pretty unified, to be honest. This track is a little more along the line of Hardcore Punk that anything, but I honestly think this comes off pretty good still. Now I’ll be honest, I haven’t heard Mike Patton in a while, but he sounds like a damn near monster here. I also seriously love Mikes lyrics which constantly go back and forth between being bizarre and straight up violent. It’s brilliant though, especially that ridiculous harmonious vocal harmony consisting of “UNPLANNED PARENTHOOD!!!!!”. I don’t even know what I’m listening to half the time with Dead Cross, but man is it fun. Then we have “Obedience School”, and I continue to love Mike’s very surreal and twisted performance over these brutal Death Metal blasts. However, it remains incredibly entertaining. Here, we have Mike singing about missing pets for some freakin' reason. But even that comes off like it’s sort of supposed to be here. It’s brutal and explosive, and Mike continues to sound more and more like a complete animal. He’s always had such a commanding performance no matter what band he’s in, and this is certainly no different. On “Shillelagh”, Dead Cross bring back in this sort of Hardcore Punk vibe. But the melodic vocals make tracks like this just a little more ear grabbing. Now, to be honest, this one took a little getting used to. Mike sounds a little more subdued here, and it’s not as in your face as other tracks. But at the end of the day, it’s still incredibly entertaining and over the top. My only real issue is, I would have loved to hear maybe just a little more atmosphere. However, some of Mike’s lyrics really save this one here. And if I may, you might want to get that urine tested buddy.
Now, remember when I said that I was craving some serious atmosphere? Well, I get just that on a cover of Bauhaus’s “Bela Lugosi’s Dead”. This one overall is exactly what I want to hear from Dead Cross. Up until now, there hasn’t been much of an atmosphere to this album. Now, this is totally goofy and even a little cheesy, and Bauhaus fans are probably pissed that anyone would even touch this track. But to be honest, that’s what I love about this track. This was a seriously risky track to cover, but in its insanity it’s pulled off perfectly. Not to mention, this one is so over-the-top that it sounds like it would have popped up in some B-List horror movie. But to be honest, that’s what I want to hear from these guys. Go all out, get a little weird on us, I dare you boys! On the other hand, “Divine Filth” doesn’t do nearly as much for me. This is just as explosive and angry and straightforward as some of the earlier tracks. But to be honest, I’m really not into Mike’s performance here at all. Not only that, there just seems to be this gigantic disconnect from Mike and the rest of the band here. The result just sounds seriously rehashed from earlier tracks here, and not nearly as interesting. Instrumentally though, this is still pretty fantastic, just not enough to sell this track for me as a whole. On the other hand, “Grave Slave” is the sort of artsy and bizarre performance I was looking for. Mike here sounds so much more in his element and right at home. Lyrically, he’s right back to being one of the music world’s more intriguing forces. Then, we have the playing on here, which may be some of the most intense and death metal influenced playing on the album. Overall, this one is fantastic. Once again, I really love these backing vocals as well. Not to mention, the contrast between Mike’s more subdued and exploding vocals continues to be just fantastic. Then we have “The Future Has Been Cancelled” which instrumentally might be my favorite track here. This one has a seriously great cross between old school Punk and Death Metal. And amongst all of this insanity, we have Mike Patton with a very eclectic performance seemingly bouncing all over the place. I honestly wish this one was a little longer though. Obviously not by much, I know they want to keep this album short. But some of these tracks could have easily been fleshed out for maybe an extra minute. Dead Cross though in a short amount of time have shown they have a whole lot of chemistry. Bizarre chemistry, but chemistry nonetheless.
“Gag Reflex” sadly confuses me on just about every level. Now, I figured we were going to get at least one really experimental track here. But this one is just sloppy as all hell and not even remotely interesting. This honestly just sounds like an excuse to give Mike a track to take the reigns completely. And I’m aware that I’m going to sound like a total hypocrite here. But to be honest, the atmosphere here is just too much and way too focused on. To the point where the instrumentals just sound unfinished most of the time. Also, some of the breakdowns are sadly kind of cheesy. However, I do like a whole lot of Mike’s more outrageous lyrics. This album ends us off with “Church of the Motherfuckers”. Now, on the other hand, this is equally just as over the top and ridiculous. But the atmosphere on this one just works so well in Dead Cross’s favor. For a slower track, hell yes this works. Every instrumental seems to be so patient as they built up below Mike’s completely ear shattering performance. There’s just enough dark atmosphere, and the instrumentals are soaring and intense. Most importantly, Mike sounds like a damn mean psychiatric patient, which let’s be honest, is exactly where we want to hear him.
Rating: 7.9/10
Give A Listen To: “Seizure and Desist”, “Obedience School”, “Bela Lugosi’s Dead”, “Church of the Motherfuckers”
Overall Thoughts: Now, going into this I really didn't know what to expect. But to be honest, I'm really impressed with how this album came out for the most part. Mike Patton, Dave Lombardo and company actually have a lot of really great chemistry. Not to mention, Mike's always outrageous vocal performances just seem to be right at home amongst this chaos. I just wish this album was a little bit longer. Outside of that, solid album boys.
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