Saturday, February 28, 2015

Dr. Living Dead! - Crush The Sublime Gods (2015)

The undead doctors from Sweden are back once again to fill our minds with fast, crazy and humorous crossover thrash metal. Since the release of their latest album, the 2012 release "Radioactive Intervention", the band have had two changes in the line-up. Gone are Dr. Ape and Dr. Dawn and in are Dr. Mania and Dr. Slam, both trying to help and keep the momentum going for this young and talented band.

"Crush The Sublime Gods" is the band's third release and it is very much alike the band's two previous full length efforts. It is good, fast, heavy chugging thrash that also have some comedy in it, but the comedy is done with a twinkle in the eye, which means that the music comes first and the comedy lures in the background, always being done with a smile. The same goes in the live performances, in which the band performs with skull masks and with a big bucket full of passion and energy.

The big change for the band since the last album (besides the new line up) is that they got picked up by Century Media, which instantly means that the band can create a more professional and well produced record, which is very obvious if you compare "Crush The Sublime Gods" with both "Dr. Living Dead" and "Radioactive Intervention". The production is much cleaner, giving the music a much larger play room to really blossom and grow. That also goes for the band members, whom does a strong job behind their gear. Although I do think that the new singer Dr. Mania is almost a pure copy of Dr. Ape. If I did not know about the shift, I would have guessed that it was the same old singer that has always fronted the band.

The song material in "Crush The Sublime Gods" is definitely good, but I really miss that one song that can lift the album to unspeakable levels. Be sure though that there is a lot of good, meaty thrash metal in this album. Some of my favourites are the title track, "Civilized To Death", "Force Fed", "TEAMxDEADx", and even the two instrumental tracks "Salvation" and "Triggerkiller" surprises me in a good way. So there are a lot of good songs to chose from in this album.

It is hard to determine if "Crush The Sublime Gods" is the best album made by Dr. Living Dead! so far because the band keeps on chugging in the same rail way, but this time it is with a cleaner production. Ultimately, I do think that the band has created another stellar crossover thrash product that should go well down in the common mosh pit. The band has a lot of thrash in them and they really show it in this 13 song long piece. I still feel like the band has some bit to go to reach the absolute world class heights, but they are getting there. The gods are not yet crushed, but be sure of that the doctors will see you soon again for another physical exam.

Songs worthy of recognition: Civilized To Death, Crush The Sublime Gods, TEAMxDEADx, Salvation

Rating: 7,5/10 Buck$

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