Dead Cross Dead Cross Artist

The eponymous debut from the all-star punk unit featuring {|Dave Lombardo|} (ex-{|Slayer|}/{|Suicidal Tendencies|}), {|Justin Pearson|} ({|Retox|}/{|the Locust|}), {|Mike Patton|} ({|Faith No More|}/{|Mr. Bungle|}), and {|Michael Crain|} ({|Retox|}/{... Read more

The eponymous debut from the all-star punk unit featuring {|Dave Lombardo|} (ex-{|Slayer|}/{|Suicidal Tendencies|}), {|Justin Pearson|} ({|Retox|}/{|the Locust|}), {|Mike Patton|} ({|Faith No More|}/{|Mr. Bungle|}), and {|Michael Crain|} ({|Retox|}/{|Festival of Dead Deer|}), {|Dead Cross|} delivers a lethal blast of hypnic jerk-inducing hardcore that's as wildly unpredictable as it is loyal to the genre's predilection for compact sonic vivisection -- the entire affair clocks in at just under 28 minutes. Opening with the familiar and uneasy sound of the United States' Emergency Alert System, Seizure and Desist unleashes a Gatling-gun barrage of staccato riffage and breakneck drumming that provides the perfect vehicle for {|Patton|}'s unhinged, multi-octave croon/scream. Frenetic lead single Obedience School, which was first delivered to the public via a viscera-stained video that explored the seedy world of cockfighting, offers little in the way of relief, nor does the manic Shillelagh or a propulsive {|Marilyn Manson|}-meets-{|Fields of the Nephilim|}-inspired rendering of {|Bauhaus|}' Bela Lugosi's Dead. In fact, discomfort is {|Dead Cross|}' m.o., but the results are so ghoulishly compelling that it's akin to shamefully leering out your car window at a grisly accident scene on your way to pick up a pizza. Hardcore done right is a terrible and beautiful thing. ~ James Christopher Monger Less