By: Charlie Butler
Album Type: Full Length
Date Released: 04/08/2017
Label: Ipecac Recordings |
Three
One G
While Dead Cross don’t quite deliver the all-out face-melting
insanity you may expect from their constituent parts, this debut is still an
exhilarating burst of queasy punk rock mayhem that reminds most young
pretenders who’s in charge.
“Dead Cross” CD//DD//LP track listing:
1.
Seizure and Desist
2. Idiopathic
3. Obedience School
4. Shillelagh
5. Bela Lugosi’s Dead
6. Divine Filth
7. Grave Slave
8. The Future Has Been Cancelled
9. Gag Reflex
10. Church of the Motherfuckers
2. Idiopathic
3. Obedience School
4. Shillelagh
5. Bela Lugosi’s Dead
6. Divine Filth
7. Grave Slave
8. The Future Has Been Cancelled
9. Gag Reflex
10. Church of the Motherfuckers
The Review:
It’s
impossible not to get excited about the talent gathered to form Dead Cross. Any new project from Mike Patton comes with high expectations, but throw in the mighty
drum skills of Dave Lombardo, The Locust’s Justin Pearson on bass and Festival Of Dead Deer’s Michael Crain unleashing six-string carnage and anticipation goes
through the roof.
What’s
most apparent on the band’s debut LP is that they sound like they are having a
total blast. Dead Cross’ blend of no-nonsense hardcore
punk, restless metal and goth-tinged weirdness may be slightly more
straightforward than the band member’s career peaks but it packs a real punch.
The
highlights of this album come when Dead Cross switch
between breathless intensity and slower sections within the space of a track. “Idiopathic” and “Obedience School” are sub-three minute epics that find the band
ripping through furious riffs and sections of reverb-assisted grandeur. This
backdrop of ever-changing sounds and moods give Patton freedom to unleash his full arsenal of vocal talents from
smooth crooning to incomprehensible gurgles and screams. Most disturbing is his
mumbled utterances of “Tampax” over
the bizarre locked groove that ends “Gag
Reflex”.
“Shillelagh” is the closest Dead Cross get to Faith No More territory
with a strong “King For A Day...”
feel to its ever-shifting punk rock churn. The second half of the album finds
the band channelling the spirit of Pearson
and Crain’s 31G Records
past, particularly the off-kilter rock’n’roll discord of “The Future Has Been Cancelled”. The only slight misfire here is
their cover of Bauhaus’ “Bela Lugosi’s Dead”. They deliver a spirited version of the track
but its presence in the middle of the LP is jarring and
disrupts its breakneck flow.
While
Dead Cross don’t quite deliver the all-out face-melting
insanity you may expect from their constituent parts, this debut is still an
exhilarating burst of queasy punk rock mayhem that reminds most young
pretenders who’s in charge.
“Dead Cross”
is available here
