Review / 200 Words Or Less
Deadmen
Anger Rising

Afraid of the Basement (2014) Nathan G. O'Brien

Deadmen – Anger Rising cover artwork
Deadmen – Anger Rising — Afraid of the Basement, 2014

This is some metalpunx ouf of New Jersey. Superfast and snotty as all hell. Like some spikey-haired snot punk singing for a grind band or something. There’s sweet breakdowns too, which lend it a hardcore vibe. Maybe I’m way off-base, but that’s what I’m feeling. Not always my favorite thing, but I find this rather endearing. Guitars are sick. Especially on “I Won’t Fight It” and “Go Out Like Darby”, which are the final two songs on Side B. There’s a level of crunchiness to the whole recording that I really dig. Pretty solid production but still like, loud and crusty, ya know. Plus they have movie samples in between songs which I always get a kick out of. And there’s some cool sample manipulation type shit incorporated. I should mention that this was sent by Shayne, a solid dude that I’ve been trading mail with for quite a while now. He usually sends along a copy of Afraid of the Basement fanzine (which he contributes to) which also happens to be the name of the label that put this out. I won’t lie, the fact that this comes on cassette makes me like it way more than I normally would. I’m a sucker for tangible items and even more so, if they're re-tread archaic formats. Really nice looking pro-printed packaging, which is no surprise as AOTB is one of the more professional-looking zines that comes through my mailbox.

Deadmen – Anger Rising cover artwork
Deadmen – Anger Rising — Afraid of the Basement, 2014

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