Dead CrossII

Five years have passed since their debut, and now it’s time for more sonic battering and bewilderment from Dead Cross.

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Like the debut, there’s boundless energy in every moment and plenty of character in Mike Patton’s unhinged vocal delivery that could and does go anywhere at any given moment. Here though, Dead Cross sounds more derivative of their influences than on the debut.

A song like Love Without Love shows the band’s more unpredictable side, opening with metallic riffing, dark arpeggiated guitar and Patton intoning a simple refrain before they all hit the mad switch and everything suddenly teeters on the brink of collapse; Imposter Syndrome concludes things with eerie theatrics and the cinematic menace of Marilyn Manson. In between there’s tracks like Heart Reformer that pay direct homage to old-school east coast hardcore with a touch of typical Patton eclecticism, the straight-up onslaught of Reign of Error and Nightclub Canary’s Black Flag-stye violence.

… ferocious, wild and violent, just as the best hardcore should be.

Mike Crain drops some East Bay Ray-style surf guitar lines into the mid-paced Animal Espionage just to make sure they haven’t left out anyone. Recent single Christian Missile Crisis is a clear highlight with both Patton and Dead Cross at their schizophrenic best, but even here there is obvious carry over from their other bands like The Locust and Mr Bungle. None of this criticism takes away from the fact that II is enormous fun, even as it dips a little in the middle before recovering with Nightclub Canary and all that follows it. It may not send heads spinning in the same way as the breathtaking debut, but it is still ferocious, wild and violent, just as the best hardcore should be.

STANDOUT TRACKS: Christian Missile Crisis, Imposter Syndrome, Nightclub Canary
STICK THIS NEXT TO: OFF!, Bad Brains, Suicidal Tendencies