One Dead Three Wounded
Paint The Town (Re-Release)
6.8
Apparently not happy with the album's initial distribution, Philadelphia’s One Dead Three Wounded have re-mastered, re-mixed and re-issued their debut album with a new label. They have also been kind enough to throw in 2 extra tracks for the poor saps who bought this the first time around a year ago.
One Dead Three Wounded play a pretty solid form of anthemic and sometime melodic yet noisy and chaotic hardcore/metalcore with a few hints of Southern sludge that give it a bit more character than the standard sound. There is certainly a lot of conviction here, but nothing musically that lifts ODTW from the pack. There’s lot of emotive screaming from Tim Zadhoski that thankfully is free from clean crooning, there’s some understated dual harmonies, but nothing too overly melodic or At The Gates-y, there are some breakdowns and grooves; and that’s where ODTW kind of change things up a bit.
A few tracks, like the more droning caustic instrumental opener “Failed Transmission”, the Southern grime closing of “Ghosts”, the foreboding instrumental “Welcome Home Tragedy”, the heaving “Cowboys Don’t Look Back”, and the rock n roll girth of “Eight Dollar Prom Dress” break up the expected metalcore gallop and shout histrionics of tracks like “Thank God For Painkiller”, “Farewell” and “My Life as Type”. However, ODTW never fully roll in the southern grime quite like say Maylene and The Sons of Disaster.
The two bonus tracks “Cardia” and “Soldiers” blend in nicely with the original content as “Cardia” mixes a bit o’ the South with a bit o’ core and "Soldiers” is a more standard metalcore/hardcore romp. The production on the album isn’t as clean as your typical Killswitch Engage clone but ODTW is really one of those type of bands, however I think I'd like to see them further explore the tumble weed strewn, sandy dryness of the South a little more to define them further from the pack.
