Surreal Overdose

One of the best things about Deceased was how they were able to shift from the edge of one metal sub-genre to the edge of another, never seeming out of place. Consider the old school death metal of their first two albums. This was followed by the Mercyful Fate-inspired trad/death of albums three and four. The band’s fifth, "As the Weird Travel On", showed a complex and hyperactive melodic style that differed once more. It was another six years before "Surreal Overdose" came out. This sixth album saw them perform yet another stylistic transition. This record is full-on thrash metal. Don’t worry, this isn’t retro-thrash revival nonsense. This is real thrash made by old geezers who witnessed the original thrash scene first-hand, but who hadn't quite got 'thrashing' out of their system.

The reason Deceased were able to change musical direction was because they had a deep, broad knowledge of their influences. This is a band who recorded almost fifty metal and punk covers prior to releasing “Surreal Overdose”. With such craft and expertise, the band could breathe new life into any metal genre they chose. These veterans understood how to work the 'Deceased' sound into different styles. This album still sounds like Deceased, though it doesn’t sound like any of their previous records. Few records sound like this one, even in thrash circles. This is a brutal tech-thrash record that reminds me most of Slayer, Sindrome and Voivod. Throw "Hell Awaits", "Into the Halls of Extermination" and "Killing Technology" together into a pit fight and you’ll have this record. The trademark melodic Maiden-esque breaks and NWOBHM solos are still here, but they are hidden beneath the massive wall of riffing. This is the band's heaviest record since "The Blueprints for Madness".

The personnel changes may have inspired this change of direction. Long-time guitarist Mark Adams was replaced by Shane Fuegel (who often played with the band as a live guitarist). Fuegel's roots came from a Voivod-esque prog/thrash band called Biovore. This may explain the band’s shift towards sci-fi thrash territory on this album. Deceased have always worn their Voivod influence (they covered “Voivod” on an early EP), but this album makes the connection more explicit than ever. Listen to the odd-sounding chord stabs on "Skin Crawling Progress" for example, or the many transitions in "Cloned (Day of the Robot)". These are straight from the Voivod playbook. Thankfully, King Fowley is still able to weave his narrative lyrics into these intense riff-mazes. The complexity of the songs makes it harder to follow the storytelling, but the stories are still in there.

The other significant change is Fowley's return to the drums. I don't know why he didn't drum on the previous record. His drumming has always been vital to the band's sound. I don't particularly like how the drums are produced on this album. They sound like they have been triggered, striking at a consistent speed, and with a consistent 'splashy' loudness. Lesser drummers could probably get away with this, but the best thing about Fowley's drumming was how he used the soft/loud dynamic to usher songs along. He did this to perfection on songs like "Chambers of the Waiting Blind" (from "Supernatural Addiction"). I cannot see why he would rob himself of this dimension in pursuit of speed and power. The result is some awkward sounding fills. These occur on every song, but "Dying in Analog" might be the worst offender.

Thankfully, the songs are consistent and excellent (Deceased don't write bad songs). They are all long and intricate, being denser and more riff-driven than ever. This is the best Deceased record ever in terms of pure riffing. Every song is worth hearing, but my personal favourite is "In the Laboratory of Joyous Gloom". This might be the most aggressive, punishing modern thrash I've heard. It comes closer to Sindrome (and to Troy Dixler's vocal approach) than any other band out there. Another highlight is "Cloned (Day of the Robot)", which has an awesome sci-fi ultra-thrash feel, complete with gloomy keyboards. A song like “Kindred Assembly” even has some near-black metal riffs, though they sound nothing like black metal when Deceased play them. The integration of samples and interludes is perfect and helps to build the narrative across the songs. It is hard to fault the arrangement on this album.

"Surreal Overdose" is another excellent Deceased album, on par with "As the Weird Travel On" in terms of consistency and quality. It is more intense than that record, but less melodic. Your preference will likely depend on your own metallic predilections. Like most Deceased albums, “Surreal Overdose” requires repeated listens. The density of the music sounds overwhelming on first listen. This also makes it essential for seasoned thrash fans seeking a headrush. Anyone who likes the busier, more brutal side of thrash will love this. That includes fans of Vektor's "Outer Isolation" (also released in 2011). Long-time Deceased fans will love it too. The problems with the drumming prevent it from topping the best Deceased material (i.e., “Supernatural Addiction”), but this is still one of the best modern thrash albums out there.

Deceased have a lengthy catalog with a lot of ups and only a couple of downs, but they captured something special with their third album that they couldn't capture again. Despite having probably one of the most consistent discographies in metal in general, even I, a massive fan, wouldn't have guessed that they would get the closest to the aforementioned milestone of a record with their 6th full-length.

The record offers a fantastic mix of death and thrash metal, but the heavy metal flavoring we got used to on previous albums has morphed into speed metal elements. So when you aren't getting the death metal chugging and the glorious screams of King, you have the time to appreciate the solos and leads that reminds me of bands such as Motörhead, Iron Angel and such. I'm a sucker for this personally, but if you aren't, there is nothing to worry about considering it doesn't overpower the head-ripping death/thrash riffs that we all know and love. The production on most Deceased records are better than your average death/thrash, but this album just goes all-in on it and succeeds. The melodies and vicious riffs don't suppress the vocals whatsoever nor do they do that with the drums (with King behind them this time around). I would probably go so far to say it's mixed to perfection, but then again, it might just be me.

For 3 full-lengths in a row now, they have always had an explosive opening track and Skin Crawling Progress is no exception. You don't have to wait for too long before they unleash complete mayhem on your ears. Blast beats, devastating riffs and an equally harrowing shriek from King, all this in under 30 seconds. Few different riffs come and go but the song doesn't relent for a single second. After it ends, we get 3 killer tracks right away. Each of them has its unique charms. Kindred Assembly has one hell of a solo towards the end of it, The Traumatic starts in a speed metal fashion only to turn into a death/thrash masterpiece with wonderfully bone-chilling melodies and an amazing chorus. While it "feeds them horror", Cloned (Day of the Robot) is by far the best track on the entire record. It has everything you ever wanted a Deceased song to be. Atmosphere? Check. Unique riffing? Check and it sounds absolutely monstrous. Earworm chorus? You bet! I can't emphasize enough how good this song is with all the different ideas and styles put into it, but you will have to see it for yourself. Guess what? The rest of the songs are just as grandiose as these, but then again, we are talking about Deceased so this is to be expected at this point.

There are no real issues with this album considering that it's 44 minutes of pure, unrelenting death/thrash consistency, but if I were to be extremely nitpicky I would probably mention something about me wanting more bass in a couple of songs, but it's clearly nothing more than some made-up nonsense. Like, come on, even the cover art rocks!

Deceased are a one of a kind band. They never fail to amaze me, but this time around they outdid themselves. This record is by far the best they have done since Fearless Undead Machines and it should be a part of every death/thrash fan's collection without a single doubt.

The highlights of the album are Cloned (Day of the Robot), The Traumatic and Dying in Analog.

I find that the best bands, no matter what genre or time period they were prominent in, are generally more difficult to place into a specific genre or group like metalheads love to do. This happens mostly because they adhere to their own vision rather than attempting to recreate a certain "style" based on tried-and-true convention. That's not to say a band can't ever be that good while still remaining within the confines of a given genre, but generally, I'll be a little more partial to a band that genuinely tries to do something new or creative than a band that can competently play in an already-established niche. One of the easiest ways to superficially sound like an original band is to fuse dissimilar genres together, and in metal's case this usually involves incorporating a non-metal genre. This can, of course, result in some marvelous albums in its own right, but at the end of the day I'm primarily a heavy metal fan. Sometimes, I just want something that sounds different, but still one hundred percent completely fucking metal. Deceased is one of those very rare and special bands that accomplishes this, but what should someone new to the band expect when taking the plunge for the first time?

Surreal Overdose is perhaps one of the most idiosyncratic albums I've ever heard. It is in a style and league of its own without resorting to haphazard genre cross-pollination, a rare and remarkable feat in and of itself. Actually, that's a bit of a lie--Deceased don't cross-pollinate between genres, but they do mix it up between a shitload of metal subgenres, and that's how they manage to sound immediately original. Deceased have a solid backbone of of 80's heavy and thrash metal riffs played with enough speed and meat that you could sneak them into a death metal album making up most of the rhythm guitar section, but the lead guitars occasionally flirt with black and power metal-esque tendencies in addition to the bizarre "Maiden on a bad trip" sort of leads. Don't get me wrong, the majority of the riffs placed at the forefront of the album are mostly expansions on the groundwork the death/thrash rhythm guitars set, offering a more detailed, intricate narrative, but the album has a few more grinding black metal sections and consonant power metal leads interspersed throughout. None of it ever comes as a shock or surprise, however- nothing has been added to the album in a banal attempt to throw as many riff stylings as possible into the mix, but rather, as a natural and interesting progression of the song.

The reason the diversity within the songs is able to flow so well is for a couple of reasons. First of all, Deceased clearly didn't start writing this album with the explicit goal of making a death/thrash album- they started writing with the intent to weave a story, and how they get from beginning to end in that story is irrelevant to them. Although this isn't a concept album (as far as I know anyway), the lyrics from subject to subject flow with relative continuity- whether Deceased talks about a futuristic wasteland where everyone who walks the streets is a robotic clone, the diseases of humanity manifesting today that will inevitably spell the death of our species or the emotional burden and turmoil a man experiences on his deathbed, the entire album is tied together by the common theme of the world rotting from the inside out. Surreal Overdose revels in those horrors. This is an incredibly ambitious, curious and mostly just a fucking HUGE album- there's so much to take in and it leaves no stone unturned. Albums like this often end up completely losing their direction and trailing off into the abyss, completely ruining any enjoyment you would have gotten as a result. With so many contrasting and divergent ideas flying under one flag, there needs to be something to hold everything in its place and keep the album true to its message and its path. I've talked about how the riffs lay the foundation for the album but they do their share of wandering as well. There's something else, someone else, one guy who holds Surreal Overdose together like glue, unifying the album and taking it further than anyone else would ever dare to go:

King Fowley.

wait, I did that wrong. Let me do that again:

King FUCKING Fowley.

There we go. This man might be one of my favorite personalities in metal. He is utterly blunt and unapologetic for anything he says, spouting what's on his mind in interviews with absolutely zero concern for how others view him. But, at the same time, he doesn't have a rockstar complex; he makes a point of never condescending and doesn't see himself as any greater of a man than his fans and supporters. He clearly just loves the shit out of metal and the fact that he gets to devote a part of his life to it every day. His attitude is one I wish I saw in more metal musicians, because, well, it's people like this that keep metal's blood pumping. Fowley undertakes the duties of both vocals and drums on this album- no easy feat to begin with, and not only does he do a competent job of it but he absolutely SMOKES at BOTH of them. His drumming style on this album is unlike any I've heard- chaotic, tense, almost tearing at your insides on a song like "Skin Crawling Progress" before bursting into a midpaced break accompanied by a double-bass section. He's either pulling off fluid and textured transitions like that, or just aggressively blasting while growl-shouting surprisingly detailed vocal lines. Whatever he's doing, he dictates the theme and the flow of the music, and weaves together the dissimilar riffs into a masterful tapestry. His vocals have a sound that has a lower, death metal-esque tone, but it's delivered very clearly and rapidly and his lyrics are pretty easily understood when he's not singing particularly fast. It makes for a big, bellowing sort of thrash voice, like Tom Araya but with more roar and less yell. It's just as fresh and organic as the music surrounding it.

There's riffs aplenty on this album so a fan of pretty much any style of metal is never going to be bored while this is on, but there's a couple songs in particular that stand out to me: "Cloned (Day of the Robot)" starts out starts out with an almost melodeath-y riff to build tension, and then gradually gets thrashier and thrashier before breaking out into a Maidenesque lead, and keeps up the catch-and-release pace set for the rest of the song. "Dying in Analog" in its entirety is also a personal favorite for me because the riff that drops at about three minutes in is one of the single best god damn riffs I've ever heard. Everything about it--its melodic structure, the way it's built into, the way it plays out--is done perfectly. If anything, this album is worth listening to just for this song. Honestly, though, you're probably going to name a different song as your favorite by the time you've given this album a few spins, because it's so diverse and consistently good that any one track could pop out. I own two other albums by these guys, those being As the Weird Travel On and Supernatural Addiction, and those two are themselves worthy of praise in their own rights, but they just don't have the same energy, the same riff quality, the same sheer pulverizing force as Surreal Overdose does. These guys have only peaked now, and it's far from the end for Deceased at this point. Really, it's only beginning.

I need haunting worlds to twist my mind
For the eeriness must creep
No reaching hand just the still of night
Dripping from gloom's IV!

Shackled and chained, held captive within the night’s asphyxiating embrace, a lad lost for hope strains in-vain for his fate is all-too-vile for the ears of the his innocent peers from the township held miles and miles beyond. The ill-disposed man’s bemoaning towards his eminent demise is shrieked in naught for his captors, the gruesome ghouls armed with catheter trays, retractors, as well as the standard array of scalpels and calipers, hear not their subject’s cries and pleas for any hope of release. As he attempts to twist and turn amidst his bondage, the fluorescence begins to dim, while the crackling of laughter is heard not even a short distance away. Soon after, the shroud begins to mold and the shapes soon take form. No longer is the man a living and breathing human being. No, he’s now a subject, a comatose corpse ready for dissection and dismemberment as his ear-piercing shrieks are silenced and his veins injected with an overdose of fatal fluids borne from taint and terror.

Deceased’s sixth full-length album, Surreal Overdose (2011), certainly embodies the frantic and frightening environment for which such surgical sadism might develop and take form. As heard throughout Deceased’s previous full-length album, As the Weird Travel On (2005), the listener is to expect a barrage of catchy, yet occasionally somber riff-work, coupled with bombastic drum instrumentation and interludes, alongside the vicious roars and howls from Deceased’s Kingsley “King” Fowley. Surreal Overdose follows en-route from Deceased’s previous blend of thrash metal-influenced death metal, yet while retaining a traditional flavor through the potent presence of wild guitar solos and gut-wrenching guitar riffs. Essentially, Deceased’s Surreal Overdose is a progression of the work found from As the Weird Travel On, yet the musical depth and focus is further embellished, honed, and refined from their musical efforts of yore.

Moreover, one of the initial strengths of this particular endeavor is how Fowley’s lyrical content seamlessly weaves together with Mike Smith’s and Shane Fuegel’s guitar riffs, leads, and melodies in sewing together a wildly taciturn yet subtly appealing cloak of horror and fright. Just imagine for one split second, the initial reaction a contemporary, middle-aged mother would have if she woke wide awake and manically disorientated on a cold, damp, and early Monday morning, only to find her hand despoiled in a gore-borne, hideous mess alongside her innocent and oddly pale child lying right at her side. Fowley’s lyrics replicates the array of suspense, fear and disgust, which an early ‘90s horror montage reveals while catering to the wild whims and forlorn fancies of the percussion and melodies heard throughout the album.

Reclused and cruel her life goes on another victim grows
Her addiction to the dark, disturbed brings another pregnancy
The infant newborns un-snuggly settle into their creeping tombs
They'll see no sun as the canvas paints a storming, raining doom!

Throughout the visceral onslaught, through which Smith and Fuegel set forth from their frets and fingers, Fowley takes the stand to utter forth anthems of surgical malpractice, maternal macabre, and of the untimely massacre of mortality. Deceased has always been a band who fits the mold of being a horror-themed heavy metal group, and the prose heard throughout Surreal Overdose most certainly testifies towards the truth of that claim. In lieu of Fowley’s chilling echoes, the technique which permeates his practice is one-of-a-kind. As heard in Deceased’s earlier full-length albums, Fowley’s growls, roars, and howls are guttural and quite exceptional. Picture a wild and fanatic black bear prowling the dense, lush tundra of the Alaskan wilderness. This savage behemoth is craving, starving, and lusting for a single supper for the night. Amidst his lingering hunger, our brute bellows forth an aggressive, heart-rending roar in response to the pain of starvation. Fowley’s vocal technique is akin to the emancipation of a distraught brute’s feral rage: frightening, memorable, assertive, and certainly spine-shattering. Expect a limb-ripping, heart-shattering tone by which Fowley grunts and growls his hex-ridden hymns of medical malpractice and savagery.

Accompanying Fowley’s vocal lines and choruses are Smith and Fuegel’s interwoven melodies, riffs, and leads harkening back to the early A.M. hours of Bleak House, Angel Witch, Satan’s Host, and many other bands under the New Wave of British Heavy Metal (N.W.O.B.H.M.) moniker that slept under the murky sargasso of sepulchral ooze and filth. The many guitar leads which embellish the musicianship throughout Surreal Overdose gradually ascend throughout the album, thus propelling the guitar riffs toward new-found heights of enjoyment and excitement. Smith and Fuegel’s leads impact the listener in such a way as to release their raw, unkempt emotions in a frantic bout of sheer fanaticism. In our case, the devil is most definitely hidden within the details of each individual riff and melody; tempting and riling our Dionysian dreams of tragedy, desire, and unhindered passion, thus shattering the epithet of the Ten Commandments and hurling the listener in a frame of sheer bliss and pleasure. Moreover, alongside the dazzling array of guitar leads are the riffs and intertwining melodies by which they are constructed. Simply put, the guitar riffs are catchy and energetic. In a comparative sense, they are amplified in a recognizable death metal tone: muddled, potent, and cavernous. Yet despite maintaining a sound rooted in late-1980s death metal, a modern tint is employed, which amplifies the death metal-rooted sound of Deceased’s arsenal of riffs into a quasi-thrash metal mold. Back to the comparison to bands such as Satan’s Host and Angel Witch, Smith and Fuegel’s riff composition is embedded in the style of the aforementioned bands, as well as to the catchiness which flavors many prominent thrash and traditional metal groups. In a nutshell, the riffs and melodies heard throughout Deceased’s Surreal Overdose are akin to the macabre and miasmic vibes that death metal is known for, yet tamed under the formulas and quirks of thrash and traditional metal.

Les Snyder’s bass compositions are fitting to the dreary and weary personality, which characterizes the mood of Surreal Overdose. More often than not, the bass accompanies the rhythm and lead guitar instrumentation, in order to create a cohesive sonic entity. This is the case with Deceased throughout this full-length album. Snyder’s attempt at chasing the worn and weary wights of the duet musings of the rhythm and lead guitar contribute to Deceased’s overall sound by amplifying the impact, which the sound leaves on the listener. Instead of hearing a light, almost-hollow sound to the guitar instrumentation, Snyder fortifies the rhythm guitar’s riffs, melodies, and harmonies through the creeping buffer which the bass creates. As for the lead guitar’s part of the play, the bass allows for the guitar leads to showcase their merit and temper among the ensemble of the rhythm guitar. In essence, one is to expect Snyder’s bass to competently accompany the rhythm and lead guitar passages throughout the bleak and brooding journey through this album.

The percussion and drum talent, which inhabits the music is fitting to the dire dirge of Deceased’s style of heavy metal. The production and initial sound of the percussion is dynamic and protruding to the ear. This is not a negative trait, as on the contrary, the impeding tone of the percussion significantly contributes to the foreboding atmosphere, which this album emits. There is a subtle reverb to the tone of Fowley’s drumming. This quaint characteristic further allows for the music to progress and evolve in accordance with the morose drum tempo, while leaving enough breathing space for the bass and rhythm guitars to play off from one another. There is a natural rhythm for the pace of a living man’s breathing. The tempo which Fowley aligns himself with surrounds the listener in a conundrum of protruding instability, akin to a man furiously struggling to breathe after the leash of life has been severed into two. Fowley’s drumming is balanced and compact yet all-too-unpredictable, which goes along with the suspenseful nature that adorns this very album.

Deceased’s full-length outing, Surreal Overdose, is a chilling, pulse-stopping, and soul searing hybrid slab of death, thrash, and traditional metal. Deceased has a consistent habit of exhibiting improved musicianship and depth as Surreal Overdose proves in full standing. Heavy metal is a unique genre of music, which often riles and toys with the emotions and thoughts of its listeners. Deceased is a prime example of the type of band who manages to successfully hurl its captive in a surreal hallucination of utmost tragedy to the clamor of the rhythm and lead guitar as well as to the beckoning of roars heard from realms beyond.

It's on the rise and it's always there
Creates demise as it creates despair
It attacks the world in so many ways
Skin crawling forward reaching
Pulling, downward to our graves!
And it's never, ever, going away!

Let me just start this review by saying, I have never heard any of Deceased's previous material. I spend a fair amount of time in metal forums, and that is where I learn about a lot of bands and music in general, but Deceased's name was never one that I heard. But just this past month I heard quite a bit of buzz about this album, Surreal Overdose, so I headed on over to Youtube to see what all of the fuss was about. The couple of tracks that I heard were great and had me sold. Surreal Overdose and Deceased as a whole became my top priority as far as looking for new music goes and I couldn't be happier.

This is far from your typical death/thrash album to say the least. Sure, most of the riffs may meet the criteria of the genre, but there is so much more to the songs. There are so many great melodies and harmonies on this album, it's almost ridiculous. You add catchy riffs, great vocals and fantastic structuring and that's a formula for brilliance. Each song here tends to stand out on it's own, with some songs being more straightforward death/thrash, while others encompass some progressive elements. The song "Off-Kilter" is a perfect example of one of the more basic songs but it's still a raging tune, while the song "Skin Crawling Progress" takes all kinds of twists and turns throughout it's near 7 minutes of life.

As I said before, every track tends to separate itself from the others, but they also seem to take the listener for a little ride. The songs don't follow your typical patterns of verse, bridge, chorus, break, and repeat, but instead contain several different riffs and melodies. The best part about all of these different parts of the song though, is the fact that Deceased holds your attention the whole time. A lot of bands try to fit in as many riffs or solos into a song to try and sound more unique, but they tend to seem like one huge forced clusterfuck and leave the listener hanging. Deceased doesn't do that but instead leaves you wondering... what's coming next?

Besides the amazing guitar work, everything on this album is above average whether it's the aggressive, yet clean and understandable vocals that command the music or the intense drumming that keeps Deceased running at full throttle. There are no complaints that can be made about this album for me and I find it difficult to pick a best track but I'd say the two best tracks are "Skin Crawling Progress" and "Cloned (Day of the Robot)."

For those of you who haven't had the pleasure of listening to this beast of an album, you had better hurry up and get it, because as of right now, I'm going on record as saying this is the album of the year thus far.

skullfracturingmetal.blogspot.com
- Lister_Fiend

Deceased has a special place in their extreme metal habitat for one important reason: King Fowley and crew have never released anything irksome or unacceptable. Their following has been small, but there is not one metal band worthy of more respect and dignity than Deceased. Case closed. As usual, the American horror squad sends chimes of gloom and doom throughout "Surreal Overdose," which is only surreal in its substantial value. The musical frontier is far from illusory, as Deceased once again restarts the prototypical thrashy death metal that has defined this classic band's legendary efforts. Loaded with hooks and colossal riffing, "Surreal Overdose" sends a stern message to all the pseudo-death metal bands trying to be something they clearly aren't: you better leave the throne room immediately, because the King and crew still rule this horrific kingdom.

Deceased shocks the death/thrash metal blueprint with clear overdubs of traditional metal completely back to life, making it look like they never took a prolonged pause between "Surreal Overdose" and the amazing "As The Weird Travel on," another keeper. Everything from the twisted "Skin-Crawling Progress" to the dueling melodies throughout "Cloned" shows amazing song writing abilities; each track gushes with a plethora of fantastic, ravage riffs, Fowley's grinding yelps, energetic percussion and solos that crack like a million whips. Fowley sounds better than ever, as his trademark vocals diligently erode through the metallic malevolence excellently. The production, although incredibly rich and vivid, will not make longtime fans recoil in horror; the instruments are balanced dynamically below Fowley's primitive wails and it makes for a wonderful sound overall.

Being completely serious, we need to find the gentlemen of Deceased and arrest them, because I'm pretty sure they have too many awesome riffs here. Each and every riff exhales the odor of ripping trashiness, yet given a swell shade of old-school heavy metal just for good measure. Even better, not one song lacks an arsenal of these amazing cuts, making for a monumental listening experience. Plus, there are more incredible guitar solos than Yngwie Malmsteen on speed; just another reason to love this fantastic band and their violent music. Don't bother finding a favorite song, because you'll love them all; some are catchy, others frenzied and ravenous, but "Surreal Overdose" keeps the theme of consistent, butchering metal at the forefront, no matter what direction Deceased travels on.

Leave it to Deceased to come back and totally annihilate the competition with such a shocking, thunderous, bloodcurdling display of authentic, bone-chipping metal. "Surreal Overdose" is an absolute juggernaut of a release. No jokes, no gimmicks, no frills, no trends. Needless to say, Deceased is proudly at the top of the hill here; they remain real and totally loyal to primitive death metal, but instrumentally at a new peak of brilliance and savageness. In fact, you may need to set up a rehab stint after experiencing this intoxicating collection of poisonous furiousness. Overall, "Surreal Overdose" is the kind of album that will make you love metal again.

This review was written for: www.Thrashpit.com

Deceased are one of those rare bands which never seems to release anything even hinging on a bad album, at least when it comes to their full length studio fare. The most obvious reason is that King Fowley and his cadre of metallurgical historians have their minds and fingers upon the pulse of good taste, the lure of nostalgia and yet no crass committal or constraint to merely sounding 'old school'. Then there's also the fact they've been developing their instrumental chops for decades, and know how to write a damned good conceptual song, whether campy or genuinely intriguing. Surreal Overdose might only be the band's sixth proper studio album in over 25 years, but you'd be surprised at just how much it brings to the table: Everything.

Nothing is off the table here if it can contribute to a good song. From the band's traditional death thrashing aggression to the liberal dosage of traditional heavy/speed metal cast both in the core rhythms, dual melodies, to the time and effort placed into the lyrics, to Fowley's distinct vocals, both dour and emotional in each captured phrase. Deceased represents the very best of what any modern (or surviving) metal entity can achieve: quality compositional ability that manages to pay a wonderful compliment to all of its influences, but at the same time sounds incredibly fresh and important, as if it had just stepped off the pain train to convey your suffering. Cash on delivery. Those who are fond of the band's past works Supernatural Addiction (2000) and Fearless Undead Machines (1997) are in for a particular treat, because Surreal Overdose is every bit as memorable, if not more so.

Each track distinguishes itself very well from the next, with only modest similarities in the vocals or the volatile pacing. There are a good number of full on, raging relics like "Skin Crawling Progress" which draws upon everything from Voivod to Venom; or the uplifting intro to "The Traumatic" which quickly devolves into a paranoid instilling hostility (dig the belligerent drumming passages that cut through the volleyed verses); or the scathing, morbid thrash that heralds "In the Laboratory of Joyous Gloom". But they are also some strategic breaks in the action, if no less hair raising, like the clinical spikes of titillating melody that inaugurates the track "Cloned (Day of the Robot)" or the subtle, haunted texture of the guitars in the instrumental "A Doom-Laden Aura" which sets up the finale, "Dying in Analog" (what a title there). With the exception of that instrumental, there isn't a single cut here void of at least 4-5 breathtaking, exciting riffs, and even the leads flow with electrical enthusiasm.

What's more, Surreal Overdose possess what must be the best production of any Deceased full-length to date: the guitars even more brazen than Supernatural Addiction, the rhythmic balance meticulous, the vocals hovering at just the proper level beyond the asylum window. It blows the previous disc As the Weird Travel On clear out of the airlock, in both quality and the actual sound. A love letter to the psychological breakdown of all humanity. In summation...what a rush! You don't get an album from these Virginians very often, so when you do, it's almost always guaranteed to keep you occupied for many listens. Surreal Overdose is no exception, and in fact, and I'll go so far as to say it's the best thing the band has ever stamped their logo upon. These are men who love metal. METAL. It's not a hoax. It's not a joke. It's not a laughingstock for suits and hipsters and 'cultured' fuckheads. If you can say the same for yourself, then you're about to become one album richer.

-autothrall
http://www.fromthedustreturned.com