Disfigured Dead
Visions Of Death
6.8
New York’s Disfigured Dead is a band for the traditionalist who still makes it a point to keep current with the times, but frequently needs a fix of the aural abuses good old school death/thrash metal provides when sonic overdrive just isn’t what you’re in the mood for. So if slightly aged, Floridian-influenced death metal with a healthy dose of West Coast thrash is what you’ve been missing , then consider Visions Of Death to be your bloody manna.
This dual vocal four-piece kicks your ass for a full 50 fucking minutes with some of the coolest classic tongue-in-cheek shit I’ve heard in a long time, and the best part is there’s a sneaky technicality wound around in all those chunky sludgy Floridian riffs that keeps things simple, but definitely not simple-minded or comedic where the actual music is concerned. It’s not the cleanest as far as pinpoint precision goes, but jaw-dropping fretboard wizardry isn’t what you came here for. You came for the hefty Obituary-like grooves of “The Gates Of Hell”, the charming cheeziness of opener “Beyond The Darkness” and “Act Of An Unsound Mind”, and all of it wrapped in a bloody Cannibal Corpse / Goatwhore blanket courtesy of some rather Falgoust-sounding vocals on “Mentally Murdered”, and a chum bucketful of Barnes-era CC riffery.
As raw as the day is long, but highly listenable with or without adding alcohol, Disfigured Dead have brought forth a respectable Hell’s Headbangers debut that makes for comfortable satisfaction in this grim and frostbitten winter season, and will make for a great thrashin’ party album in warmer months as well. Recommended to the discriminating metalhead who still likes music that makes him chuckle once in a while.
