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. Check out Deceased on Facebook at the following link and get your hands on Surreal Overdose!
Final Rating - 4.6/5 or 92%
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