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Dead Horse > Peaceful Death and Pretty Flowers > Reviews
Dead Horse - Peaceful Death and Pretty Flowers

Interesting and boring all at once - 60%

robotniq, September 19th, 2022

Dead Horse was a strange band. Nothing indicates that strangeness better than their Similar Artists entry on this website. I have never seen such a vast, disparate list of unconnected comparisons, all with apparent similarities to Dead Horse. The list includes everything from Entombed to Exhorder, from Attitude Adjustment to Autopsy, from Testament to Terrorizer. It seems to scroll for an eternity, throwing up band after band like some bizarre random generator. Yet, when I listen to Dead Horse, most of these comparisons make sense in one way or another. This was a band that straddled many different facets of metal (and hardcore) without subscribing to a particular genre.

"Peaceful Death and Pretty Flowers'' is the band's fascinating, yet flawed, second album. This record represents the band at their oddest and quirkiest. Dead Horse departed from their (brilliant) D.R.I.-esque debut album. That record ("Horsecore...") was fast, tight, energetic and wild. This one is slower, more measured, with longer songs and fewer hardcore influences. The band grooved harder, loosened their solos and embraced their Southern rock influences (i.e., bands like Lynyrd Skynyrd). There are still some blastbeats. The song-structures resemble death metal. There are musical and vocal similarities with other Texan acts of the time, such as Pantera and the aforementioned Exhorder. It is hard to pin the band's sound to anything specific.

The result is a clever, varied and technically excellent record with flashes of genius. The musicianship is brilliant. The opening brace of "Cod Piece Face" and "Turn" is the highlight. Different types of riffs wander into one another, blending into impressive solos that are more nuanced and melodic than the usual death metal shredding ("Turn" has an amazing solo). The rest of the album is less impressive. There are some faster blasting parts (e.g., "The Latent Stage") and some slower death metal vibes ("Snowdogs", "The Lark Nest"). Then there are some quirky and surreal songs like "La La Song", a reprise of the song "Bewah" from their debut (here titled "Aplo"), and a B52s cover ("Rock Lobster"). Most of these excursions feel random and 'forced', like the band is trying too hard.

Undeniably, Dead Horse sounds ahead of their time (this record came out in 1991). Some moments feel like a precursor to the death n' roll style that Entombed popularised two years later. Nicke Andersson knew of Dead Horse. Entombed covered one of the band’s early songs for "Uprising" a decade later. There are several moments on this record that remind me of that band’s "Wolverine Blues". The best example is the beginning of "Peaceful Death", which opens with a drum pattern that reminds me of "Out of Hand" and then a scream that sounds like "Demon". Throughout, the vocals are similar to the style L.G. Petrov would adopt in the post-"Wolverine Blues" era.

Still, I don't much enjoy listening to this. It doesn't feel like a cohesive vision. It seems longer than the 42 minute run-time would suggest. The quirks and innovations cannot hide the lack of energy and bite. The production is nowhere near as good as that on their debut (being flattened and muffled in comparison). The band deserve credit for taking their sound in new directions, but "Horsecore..." and "Wolverine Blues" are better options.

Should be better known - 86%

Superreallycool, October 9th, 2014
Written based on this version: 1991, CD, Big Chief

What can be said about Dead Horse that hasn't already been said about them? Actually, I could say anything just about and I'd be among the few to have said it, because this album is very underrated, which really is a shame as this album shows.

There are three things that set Dead Horse as a different than most kinda band. The first, and most important, is their sense of melody. Now, this isn't a melodic death metal album in the sense that we now think of it. This is actual death metal, it's just that the riffs have a real melody behind them. This makes the songs more... song like, if that makes sense, than most death metal band's works. The riffs are heavy, but there is always a clear and present melody. It never sacrifices heaviness for melody, but the songs are always sure to have the melody behind them. On top of this melodic death metal, but not melodeath, sound is a layer of thrash metal. This layer is mostly just surface, and takes a back seat to the death. There really isn't enough thrash here to call it crossover, but it's there.

Secondly, vocalist Michael Haaga is not a cookie monster kinda guy. His vocals are gruff, but they are actually understandable. As with death, even an untrained ear can understand the lyrics. Now, Michael Haaga's voice isn't anywhere near as clear as Chuck's or of even the same style, but there are similarities. Songs like "the la la song" have normal death metal vocals, but more often than not Michael has is own style and this is what shines trough. When there are regular death metal vocals, they are strong and do an admirable job, if not a whole lot more.

Third, guitarist Greg Martin provides more traditional guitar solos than most other death metal guitarists. They aren't crazed and random; they, like the music, have a real melody to them. This makes them a LOT more memorable and, in my humble opinion, better than most other band's solos. Martin isn't too technically impressive, but the skill he has he puts to great use and has a style of his own (at least within the death metal world).

This is a great album. If you're getting into death metal, Michael Haaga's gruff instead of cookie monster vocals are a lot easier for non-death metal heads to appreciate, but there are plenty of cookie monster vocal moments to help you get introduced to that style in a somewhat comfortable manner, although be warned, this is not beginner stuff outside of the vocal department.

Death does rides a dead horse! - 85%

Diablo, October 4th, 2003

Every once in a while I go to Borders to check out the magazines and the bargain books, and everytime I'd go to the metal cds section this cd would stand out. Maybe because of it's 90's Thrash cover art that reminds me of bands like Violence and others like it. Someone wrote that this band were considered the first underground Death metal band from texas. I don't know about that, they do sound more thrash than anything with some hardcore influences that can be heard in their 1990 demo songs. This is kind of like DRI; going from hardcore to thrash except this band is heavier and a little bit more extreme. The singer does a few growls here and there and the sound is heavy but not enough to catergorized them death. In some songs they remind me of Nuclear assault. Anyways; a very entertaining 90's thrash album with choruses that makes you sing along in some songs and others that just makes you wanna smash your whole room. If you get the chance buy it, it includes five demo songs and a ton of aggression