Labels: In At the Deep End
Review by: Tom Hughes
Now we’re facking well talking. This truly, truly marvellous little Zombie-core endeavour has, for the last couple of weeks, had me grinning like a twat, pulling sudden and involuntary 90 degree invisible-guitar moves, slamming desks, rolling eyes and yelling “ONLY THE TASTE OF BRAINS CAN EASE THE PAIN!!” without warning at my bemused colleagues. And it can do the same for you! The skinny: 80s power-thrash homage with more chug than a knackered Volvo, wailing high-end hammer-on licks all over the fucking shop, tunes so damn catchy they’ll end up randomly derailing your train of thought at innapropriate moments, and lyrics that really, truly capture what it is to be a Zombie: “The Pain of Being Dead”, “The Night Has A Thousand Eyes”, “Aim for the Head”, all highly emotional treatises on unfulfilled desire, belonging, community, unacceptance by mainstream society and suchlike. ‘Cannibal’ in particular is extremely moving (“Ripping off your head/Sucking out your eyes/Tearing all the muscle from your jaw”); and crying out, as much of this does, for some kind of karaoke version complete with bouncing lyric ball for play-along-at-home group-shout backups action.
It’s tight as y’like, lightning fast, gets a damn good mosh on at frequent intervals and has a nice punk-budget dirt to it recording-wise that too much polished metal misses. I ain’t too up on my 80s thrash to be honest, but the one thing this did remind me of in particular was an old Thrasher Noise Forest tape my old pal Kelvin used to have, which was dead boss, as, most assuredly, is this. A joke dumb band? It would be pretty bloody stupid to argue otherwise frankly, but they’ve made a properly great, fun record worth plenty of repeated listens, are playing a truckload of shows (featuring full zombie clobber, severed heads and evryfink!!) and have the best name I can think of to boot (although I can’t think that well right now cos I just keep hearing them screaming “If humans be the food of me, scream on!!” over and over). Send me more ‘Paramedics records!!