The Deep and Dreamless Sleep

First things first...I absolutely love Meliah Rage. Always have, ever since the band emerged from the streets of Boston in 1988 with the highly underated "Kill To Survive". Sure the band was pressured right from the get-go being one of the few thrash bands to ever be immediatly signed to a major label, but Meliah Rage had an ability to create melodic passages within the crunchiest of riffs, this definately allowed them to be considered somewhat more unique than many of the thrash bands of the same era.

The Deep And Dreamless Sleep is not a bad album by any means, it just seems to be lacking. For one thing, with a two year hiatus between albums, and only 8 songs to be penned for this long awaited follow-up to their come back gem, I have to wonder if this was intentional, or did the band struggle to even create these 8 tracks? And its not like these tracks are 10 minute epic thrash songs like Master of Puppets, these are all for the most part 4 minute, straight to the point, generically structured songs.

Production is a quantum leap ahead from the last album, and I'd have to say that if anything, the thing that can really be appreciated with this recording is the fact that it can certainly be heralded as the bands best produced album thus far. On the other hand, back to the songs, they just don't seem to be as memorable as the bands previous material, the melody is still there, but the infectious riffs and choruses that were so prevalent on the previous records seems to have run its course for the band. In fact, the title track is skip worthy more than anything, so we can really say that there is only 7 tracks to be taken seriously on this recording.

Undefeated and permanently damaged are great songs and should be made mention of in a positive light, but the redundancies of the rest of the album just seem to pull the overall effect of the aformentioned tracks to an all time low. Souza's vocals are pretty cool, but the dude definately lacks the range of previous singer Mike Munroe. As for the rest of the band, I've never considered this band to be overly talented or technically proficient for that matter, but the straight forward 4-4 timings and the simple 4 chord riffs do manage to work throughout. There are no flashy guitar solos, no real off-time killer drum beats, and no oustanding interludes or time changes period.

I guess if this album was released 20 years ago, it would be killer, but let's face it times are changing and even the old schoolers (priest/sabbath/dio) are evolving. Old school is good, and no one is asking the band to sell-out but for shit's sake boys...at least try to make the music interesting.