Top 10 Thrash Metal Albums of 2024 #2 Deceased - Children of the Morgue
The New Year is here ya filthy animals! Time to do a Top 10 Thrash Metal Albums of 2024 and see how last year treated us!
Powerhouse of a man (ex label runner, the drummer, bassist and vocalist of the band) King Fowley is an institution. Deceased came into existence back in 1984 and after few name changes appeared to find its footing - as a band destined to the deep, deep underground.
Doomy look, Thrashy attitude and a very Heavy Metal handshake comes together in a surprisingly fleet pair of Punkish feet. Sure, it sounds nasty and appropriately grimy, but I'll be dam-- deceased, if this doesn't come across also rather upbeat...
... album of morose ballads
The overarching theme of Fowley's immutable, guttural hollering carries through and pulls back all the stragglers. 55 minutes is a long ass album nowadays and where some might see this as a thing to celebrate, some plain can't make it through anymore - pfft, weaklings.
The titular "Children of the Morgue" up in front gives a good idea about whats to come as it is in a word: epic - segmented monolithic grinding, tongue-in-cheek dismantling of the rhythm and a complete change in melody. This is a zombification of a number of songs, stitched together for your pleasure à la P.T. Barnum.
In that vein, fascinated (and afraid) you continue forward not being able to avert those ears (?) on the account of the good old fear of missing out.
The heritage of Heavy Metal pushes a lot of melodic aspects into the music - guitarwork suddenly break into catchy sh!t and evokes a totally different layer of them ol' feels. The graceful harmonies are an interesting contrast to music that feels surly and shambolic. I've heard the album being described as progressive but I won't subscribe to that - nor do stack this into any kind of Death Metal pile.
'Crossover' and even 'Punk' comes to mind the easiest
Children of the Morgue is a flippant album. Desolate topics aplenty in ripping hops and skips will make you go "Huh? The hell did they just say?", as they already throttle forward. One could also go as far as to say that there are the makings of a concept album here; spread evenly are instrumental bits and half of the songs do occasionally pull the break to let the atmosphere (and message) sink in.
Deceased continues being Deceased, and won't win any new fans with their latest effort - apart from new people actually finding the band for the very first time of course - which hopefully happens a lot! Children of the Morgue promotes pointlessness in bouts of mayhem, but hides a lot of beauty within - beauty that might not come out of its shell in the first few listens.
THRASH-O-METER
★★★★☆ SONGWRITING
★★★★★ THEMES
★★★☆☆ LONGEVITY
★★★☆☆ PRODUCTION
★★★★☆ THRASHABILITY
SCORE:
★★★★☆ BADASS SH!T
(decimals are for weaklings)