You can’t beat a big meaty slab of NYDM and after a longish break of four years since ‘Controlled Elite’ Dehumanized are back to batter us with their third album, ‘Beyond The Mind’. Now if you’ve not had the pleasure of having your ears ripped off by Dehumanized, they’re a wonderfully crunchy blend of Suffocation / Dying Fetus / Internal Bleeding. Slamming, brutal death metal and I for one think they’re super underrated.
Now I’m not a fan of the simplistic, moronic slamming chug churned out by the truck load by twatish millennial bands…usually whilst wearing those fucking awful snapback baseball caps & bouncing up and down like gibbons on Mogadon. No. This sort of stuff needs doing properly to avoid sounding shit and bands like Dying Fetus, Broken Hope, Suffo & the much missed (alright… a bit missed) Amputated have that style nailed down. Well so do Dehumanized guys so if you like any of those bands mentioned then pick up this album (and their back catalogue while you’re at it) you won’t be disappointed.
With ten tracks and running at a shade over forty minutes you won’t be bored. The boys know exactly what they’re doing and this album kept me hooked from opener “Worthless Prosperity” with its ridiculously heavy slamming part about a minute in, machine gun drumming from George Torres (who used to perform live on drums for Mortician trivia fans) and Michael Centrone’s beautifully nasty, guttural vocals.
P.C.C.R. delivers the chug with a simplistic guitar riff and some funky bass and a weird but excellent guitar solo. Big shout out here to producer Joe Cincotta. The mix is superb with a clarity and power you don’t often hear today even with all the bells & whistles at a modern producers disposal. Every track on the album has something about it that’s memorable and there are some really catchy tunes on here. “One North” with its almost hypnotically slow, driving rhythms ( that track also opens with a sample from Rob Zombie’s dogshit remake of Halloween, but at least it’s Danny Trejo speaking…..met him once, lovely chap). Speaking of samples, ‘Black Market 2099’ begins with everyone’s favourite mutant Martian conjoined twin, Kuato requesting we open our minds! This is the most Fetus like track and matches the Baltimore bruisers punch for punch with its jazzy tempo changes and savage riffing.
“Drawn By Blood” is a ripper and probably my favourite track. It features one of the bands former vocalists John Collett (from their 2005 Man vs Man demo) lending his Chris Barnes-ish bark to proceedings.
This record will delight the brutal death metal fans amongst you and Dehumanized really stamp their authority all over this record with some really confident, technical yet catchy musicianship. Get it!
(8/10 Mark Eve)
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