Rating: 8.3

Country: Australia

Genre: Death Metal

Record Label: Self Released

Release Date: 2008

Track list:
1. One Man Genocide
2. Agents of the Apocalypse
3. At One With Evil
4. Devilstorm
5. Nocturnal Funeral

Total Playing Time: 28:28

Band Website: The Dead

The Dead - Nocturnal Funeral

Adam Keleher - Guitar
Chris Morse - Drums
Mike Yee - Vokills

The Dead rise again and how! Memories of their last year's brain-warping and physically-crippling self titled onslaught are still fresh in the mind of this not-so-impressionable reviewer but nevertheless these ruthless ugly Aussie bastards decide to strike again and more powerfully this time. This despite losing their guitarist Scott Edgar; if you were thinking that was going to stop them, you are sadly mistaken. Filling that crucial slot is none other than their immensely talented bassist, Adam Keleher, though his raw bass attack has been completely sacrificed for the sustenance of the band. Moreover, this EP has been recorded “live”, apparently in an attempt to prove that even with a member short, The Dead are as fearsome and potent a unit as ever.

Like I have mentioned in my review of their Self Titled album, the music of The Dead is quite unique and far from sounding like a clone band as most of you would imagine these days. This is clearly not a death metal band you would like to pick to play a round of spot-the-influences with your metal pal unless you have a compulsive addiction of losing. Exuding the putrid, unpalatable aura of Abscess, their dirty rough songs with seemingly inchoate and ill-formed structures actually have a good deal of thought put into them. Strangely enough, they are full of insanely catchy hooks and foot-tapping sections and not in a simplistic, newbie-friendly way either. Rather their sense of contiguous groove and momentum is reminiscent of Demilich, an undigested version perhaps. The infectiously catchy link in their music, despite its twisted nature and stoner elements, never seems to get broken; in that it's kind of like a grotesquely deformed primate swinging casually from one vine to another and reaching his distant home with effortless ease while you as a horrified spectator below sweat nervously at this dangerous yet elegant feat.

Mike Yee, also the creator of their fantastic artwork, utters muffled, almost unintelligible low grunts and occasionally lets out John Tardy-ish screams (subdued over here) to create a fine contrast. To the perpetually twisting tunes of Adam Keleher like the movement of a snake over a slippery terrain, Chris Morse manages to keep time amazingly well, resourcefully altering his beats to suit the music and keeping the momentum throbbing no matter what. As compared to The Dead's previous output, the songs on Nocturnal Funeral are definitely better composed. Where earlier only the catchy parts seemed to stand out and the rest sometimes faded into a chaotic muddle, here there is nothing of that sort; the songs are utterly engrossing from start to finish and more varied as well. In this six song EP, there are two long doomy songs with a heavy stoner influence, “At One With Evil” and “Nocturnal Funeral”. Listening to them, to basically death metal music spinning with trippy, groovy stoner elements, lesser known bands such as Korpse, Afflicted and Cadaverous Condition come to mind, which very rarely happens these days, and a few riffs in the former are even reminiscent of Autopsy. Despite being deceptively paced, these songs are interestingly structured and have some incredible winding riffs and amazing leads that are all but mind-boggling. The “live” recording makes the music sound a tad hazy, but given its nature it barely detracts from it; hell, it probably even adds some spontaneous collective venom to it.

The music on Nocturnal Funeral I feel is meant almost exclusively for the dead. I can vividly imagine corpses crawling out from their graves at midnight and dancing, swaying their decomposing bodies to the catchy morbid tunes, with even pieces of dismembered limbs running out on fingers and toes to join this perverse celebration of death. This is extraordinary, gut-wrenching stuff, one of the best death metal releases I have had the pleasure of listening to this year.

October 24th, 2008