Dropdead – Dropdead

Dropdead finally present their long awaited third album in an incredible thirty year career.
The band state on Bandcamp: “Musically, this album is a bit different from previous recordings, style-wise and vocally, with the latter being delivered so the words have an impact more so than just raw screaming.
With 23 songs in 24 minutes, the songs themselves vary much more in tempo and style, but ultimately, it’s a Dropdead record that makes sense in 2020. Lyrically, this record is relevant to the times we live in, focused on the alarming state of the world, the disturbing rise of right-wing extremism, animal abuse, and the continued social failures of humankind. These are dark times we find ourselves living in, and this is how we vent our frustration and anger in a positive way.”

Never has a truer word spoken from the Rhode Island Hardcore Punk outfit. This is the first stuff I’ve heard from Dropdead, and it starts off a little calmer than I’d expected with ‘Prelude ‘, but then ‘Torches ‘ ignites and suddenly I’m back in the late 80’s and 90’s. Very D.R.I this and the theme throughout this album remains the same. Only eight songs out of the twenty three are over a minute long. Such a track is ‘Welfare State ‘. A barrage of pounding drums and speed.

Single video ‘Flesh And Blood ‘ is a perfect mixture of D.R.I and Slayer marinated overnight with a strong punk sauce. Lovely. But this band not only demonstrate their capabilities with fast paced thirty-seconders, they also prove to us that they can hold their own with more slower crunching numbers such as ‘Book Of Hate ‘. At a whopping 2mins 57secs, it’s by far the longest track on the album and in some ways the best. The sudden speed changes in this show the band’s character and creativity.

Dropdead represent every single Hardcore Punk fan who lived throughout the late eighties boom. Napalm Death, Extreme Noise Terror, Acid Reign, Nuclear Assault, S.O.D, M.O.D, Gorilla Biscuits to name but a few, all sound like they have influences within this brilliant album. A perfect addition to the collection. Lovely.