Dead Cross - Dead Cross (2017)
How's 'bout that? Mike Patton manages to spit in the face of everyone who's been screaming "Please, another Faith No More album! Mr. Bungle reunion? That Fantômas album you mentioned ten years ago?.. A new Peeping Tom album, even? Please? We'll take anything we can get, just not another fucking Native-American influenced Tomahawk album!! Please, Michael Patone, you piece of shit man!!" by playing with a new supergroup, full of members of The Locust, Retox, and ex-Slayer's very own Dave Lombardo on drums, who also played with Mike Patton in Fantômas. The first time I had heard of Dead Cross, it was before Mike Patton had officially been announced as their new vocalist, and they had a song with Gabe Serbian on vocals called "We'll Sleep When They're Dead" and it was FUCKING GREAT, but I can't find it anywhere now, so if you have it, lemme know and help a brother out. Anyhow.. From what I remember, that song sounded nothing like what this album turned out to be, but that's perfectly fine because I think this album is pretty great, and no amount of complaints of "b-but isn't this kinda SIMPLE for a Mike Patton-affiliated album??" is going to change that.
If you go into this hoping for a sequel to The Dillinger Escape Plan's "Irony is a Dead Scene" then lemme tell you outright.. You're gonna be pretty fucking disappointed, but if you go into this album hoping for a damn good quality hardcore album and nothing more, then you're gonna get it. I didn't like this album at all the first time listening to it, I thought Mike Patton's vocals sounded really odd for a hardcore punk band, but over time, I came to the realization that they just help this band stick out in a sea of other hardcore bands, and even then: Dude's got some fucking CHOPS. I mean, we already knew that, but not necessarily when it came to doing harsh vocals, since he was mainly fucking around vocally on the highly praised Dillinger Escape Plan EP he appeared on. The dude can growl and screech in a way that you could only expect from Patton, so of course he isn't going to sound like dudes who've been doing harsh vocals consistently for the past twenty years, ala Corpsegrinder of Cannibal Corpse for a prime example, but he comes through with a vocal performance unique to this band, complete with catchy singalong bits, maybe so he can do that hand-over-ear Mariah Carey shit, especially when it comes to his great lyrical quality like "I TOOK A PISS AND IT CAME OUT RED!! I TOOK A DUMP AND IT CAME OUT DEAD!!" that really gets across the feeling of pain, desperation, and the scary monster we nicknamed "depression". Truly admirable.
Of course.. That leads to talk about the other members of the band. Honestly.. I can't tell you too much about that other than that Dave Lombardo kills it on drums like he always does. The reason why I can't tell you much about the other members is that they just don't really seem to stick out because of one problem this album has working against it: The production, while enabling the album to have a nasty sound, is just fucking weak for 2017. You know how hardcore punk bands sounded like this in the 80's and 90's? That's because that's all they could fucking afford and was available, but lo and behold, it's 2017 and the vocals on this album can -occasionally- be just the SLIGHTEST HAIR bit too loud for the guitar and bass to really stick out when they're not disregarding vocals in favor of ripping into one of their thrashier bits of instrumentation, which is when the production really sticks out in a positive light, because that's when all this fuckin' GASOLINE DRENCHED HARDCORE PUNK kicks in and your dad runs into your room to beat the fucking shit out of you.
So yeah, this album has its faults, but dammit, its homeruns make up for it. This album is pretty simple for a Mike Patton-affiliated album, like I said above, so there isn't -too- much beneath the surface when it comes to this album, but in the same breath, you have to keep in mind that this album is much better than it has any right to be, and when it comes to four middle-aged men meeting up and forming a hardcore punk band, I'm not sure if it can get much better than this, especially when the only real criticism I have of the album is that the production isn't as heavy as it could and probably should be.. But even if you dislike the album for some reason (what the fuck is wrong with you?), you can at least acknowledge this band as an opportunity to see Mike Patton front a band (with Dave Lombardo on drums, no less) that's playing in small, shitty dive bars, and really, isn't the opportunity of that alone worth dropping $15 on this album? Thinkaboutit.
8/10
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Feel free to check out the song previews/buy this album using my Amazon Associate link!
