|
Reviews
Kerrang
KKKK
Send More Paramedics started life
as a diseased limb of a side-project that proved contagious before
necrosis set in, so now they're busy running on demented instinct,
like the Misfits' metal licking hellspawn at an all night halloween
party. you'd applaud them for foisting their gut feeling upon
us, except in SMP's universe a gut feeling is two fistfuls of
entrails. And it's hard to clap when you're holding that.
From it's movie poser artwork to the loose narrative running through
each song, 'The Awakening' is their most accomplished work to
date.
Included is a bonus disc that acts as a creepy, atmospheric chaser
to the hardcore schlock-rock shellfire of the main album. It lacks
the same impact, obviously, but is another statement of intent
from a band who could merely have settled for being a novelty
act but instead chose to turn themselves into something more considered,
pulsating and entertaining.
Without a catchy chorus, a big budget or a compromise in sight,
Send More Paramedics have created a suitable monster of a record
that, fittingly engages with hearts and minds after it's torn
them from chests and heads.
Big
Cheese 4.5/5
Blood-soaked beast of a third album
from the zombie-core pioneers
Oh shit, it looks like the joke’s over. When Send More Paramedics
first unleashed their obsessions with 80’s thrash/hardcore
and classic splatter films on an unsuspecting public back in 2001,
a few of us were foolish enough to write them off as a novelty
band. Well, it seems that the last laugh is theirs; for not only
is ‘The Awakening’ themed around REAL-LIFE scientific
predictions of the mass zombification of humanity (ulp!), it also
features some of the finest Slayer-meets-DRI thrash anthems to
have ever assaulted these mortal ears. Combined with a bonus CD
featuring an excellent 80’s-style instrumental horror soundtrack,
it makes a very strong case for the undead inheriting the earth.
Ah well, if you can’t beat ‘em, join ’em - mine’s
a pint of blood and spicy brainburgers. - Alex Gosman
Rocksound
8/10
Zombiecore lurches on, ragged but
ravenous with an evil look in its vacant, bloodshot eye. SMP are
back with a double-disc concept album, the first of which exhibits
their gloriously sinister hardcore thrash that taps into nearly
every heavy metal cliche yet in a way that’s such damn fun
you can only love it, and the second of which is a synth-laden
instrumental affair that soundtracks the ghoulish story upon which
the album is based. The deranged vocals and screaming solo of
‘Virulence’ and the breakneck ‘This Crowd Is
Crushing Me’ will drag you kicking and screaming into their
twisted, macabre (under)world from which you won’t wish
to escape. “Save your soul”, scream vocalist B’Hellmouth
on the opening cut. You can run but you can’t hide!
Punker
Mentality 10/10
There are few bands in the punk/hardcore
scene like Send More Paramedics. More metal than most, splattered
with gore-encrusted zombie flick references, and making music
on their previous 4 releases (2 full length albums, a split Ep
and a split Album) that brought out the horror geek in all of
us, it's no understatement to say I've been looking forward to
this one for some time. But do SMP manage to meld the thrash-hardcore
like they have before, or have they finally become overwhelmed
by tight jeans and overly long wanky guitar solos into just another
ordinary metal band? Well, on listening to first track, 'Everything
is not under control', the thrash is still there, the gore's still
there (immortal line #1: 'As toxic seas boil black with blood/
The realisation dawns we're really fucked), and it's looking good.
Sure, it's hardly Hardcore Punk, and shares more in common with
slower Slayer songs (in fact B'Hellmouth sounds uncannily like
a rougher Tom Araya to me), but to the open minded amongst us
this is a top notch metal sound. 'Follow your Programming' and
'Sever' delivers more slayer-esque thrash, before 'Blood Fever'
delivers the first true highlight. Sounding like the bastard offspring
of Ian Mackaye and Tom Araya (fucking hell....that would be a
fucked up individual..), B'hellmouth delivers a string of Zombie
film inspired hardcore-thrash, with a brilliantly clichéd
chant of 'Blood fever' in the middle. Musically SMP are always
top of the pile; they can play their instruments as well as any
thrash band around, but it's that hardcore aspect to it which
makes it so damn fine. It's when you hear 'Disaster song' though
that you realise how great SMP really are. This is the true successor
to the death-inspired Hardcore thrash of the late 80's; whilst
bands like Ripcord, The Stupids, Napalm Death, Septic death et
al, helped to inspire Grindcore and Death metal, taking it down
the route of nihilistic sound, SMP add just that bit more melody.
Death metal for Punk fans? Quite possibly. Critics will say this
all sounds the same. I give you 'This crowd is crushing me'. Fuck
crossover, this is truly the single best mix of metal and Hardcore
punk. Opening with a solo all metal heads would appreciate, it
manages to squeeze in melodic Punk, Hardcore, thrash and Death
metal speed into its tender frame. Jeff Walker, he of Carcass
fame, and a legend in his own right, adds his mighty vocal support
to 'Flail of god'. No medical terms here though, but the death
metal vocal chorus bits just adds to SMP's canon of aural assaults.
'Virulence' and 'Scapegoat' beef up the metal elements, especially
'Scapegoat' with it's slowed down corpse-eating savagery. 'The
Unclean' does slayer better than slayer do, 'Anthropophagi' sounds
like late 80's Japanese Hardcore, but manages to be quite accessible
(possibly why it featured on the bands myspace page). 'Vital signs'
starts with some more of the samples from zombie films that the
band interjects frequently, and is another thrash monster. Death
metal, and indeed Jeff Walker, strikes again on 'I am Every Dead
thing', before it appears Glenn Danzig enters the song, breeds
with the already mentioned bastard offspring of Araya and Mackaye,
and produces something quite remarkable. Glenn Danzig, Tom Araya
and Ian Mackaye? It's somewhat special you know. 15 tracks of
complete brilliance. They thrash better than Slayer, they out
horror The Misfits, they have guitar solos of only the best quality,
and do everything 80's hardcore thrash should have become. And
add to that a (sort of) concept album status here, and a special
extra zombie flick-esque soundtrack on another cd; truly a tribute
of the best kinds, and you have the best thrash-metal-hard(ZOMBIE!)-core
band in the world.
Mass
Movement Magazine
Okay, I’m sitting here trying
to figure out how they do it…How they keep getting better
and better with each and every record. I mean, surely the formula
must be kinda similar, zombies and thrash systematically blended
in a deathly concoction? I’ve been trying to figure it out
all day, and for the life of me, I just cannot come to grips with
it. Whatever the ingredient (Trioxin?) that increases the thrash
factor with each and every record, it matters not. All that does
matter is ‘The Awakening’ is fucking incredible. The
best UK thrash album to emerge in the last twenty years, no doubt
about it. There has to be something in this whole brain eating
thing, the cerebellum diet, as SMP have stuck two rotting fingers
up at any and everyone and shown them that we can be serious contenders
in the global thrash movement, that we have our own Rocky Balboa
style underdog ready to pummel any motley group who get in their
way. Knock them out and eat their brains…Bloody incredible.
Tim Mass Movement
Last
Hours
You'd have thought after four years
the zombie thing might be running a bit thing. But you'd be wrong:
Send More Paramedics are as awesome as ever, and if anything feel
as relevant now as they ever did. I'm not sure they need to set
this album in 2025, with recent events in the Middle East and
the alleged "terror-plot" the dystopian world they have
in mind could quite happily be 2006, we just don't have a zombie
like pandemic, then again there's still four months of the year
left. Once again SMP mix up thrashy metal with a punk attitude
and aesthetic. Plus of course the obligatory sound clips from
various zombie flicks. Well worth getting hold of, especially
with the bonus CD, which is a film soundtrack for film as yet
unmade. (edd)
A
Short Fanzine About Rocking
Now as well all know, zombies are
fucking cool. Sure it all got a bit much a while back when everyone
went zombie-crazy with the release of Dawn Of The Dead (take 2)
and Shaun Of The Dead, but Send More Paramedics have been busy
spreading the zombie sickness for years now, and after last year
saw them feast upon the brains of scores of teenagers when they
supported The Offspring, it’s safe to say their profile’s
never been higher than now, with the release of their third full-length
‘The Awakening’. Musically there are no real surprises
here - you’d almost be disappointed if there were –
just fifteen tracks of Slayer-loving thrash, topped off with lyrics
about the impending zombie takeover (it’s a concept album
this time kids) of the planet. Sure it’s all a bit silly
(don’t let them hear me say that, I value my brain!) but
it’s also fucking awesome. While the Paramedics are undoubtedly
best witnessed live with their B-Movie zombie get-up, ‘The
Awakening’ is their best-produced and most rounded album
yet; songs like ‘Sever’ and ‘Anthropophagi’
have a hint of melody (!) to them, ‘Scapegoat’ is
a slow, doomy number, while the crazed groove of ‘Disaster
Song’ has ‘anthem’ written all over it. The
band’s obsessions with all things B-Movie horror is given
free rein this time round with the bonus instrumental soundtrack
CD. If you’re after a frenzied zombie-thrash attack on your
ears, and your brain…
Communion
8/10
Well-produced, heavy, fast and
well-structured, it could clearly appeal to both punk and metal
fans - which probably goes some way to explaining the popularity
of this entity. The
album also contains a bonus disc, which is apparently the soundtrack
to the story that the album is based upon. It basically sounds
like stuff along the lines of Zombi, but much more ambient. Its
fucking awesome in its own right, especially if you get off on
stuff like Goblin, Zombi and the Resident Evil soundtracks.
Scene
Points 8.8/10
The Awakening is the third offering
from back-from-the-dead thrashers Send More Paramedics. Coming
as a two CD set, the first disk is the same onslaught of thrash-punk
that we've come to expect from our anthropophagic friends. The
second disk, however, becomes the moody, brooding soundtrack to
the coming zombie apocalypse of 2025. Send More Paramedics patented
sound, zombiecore, is hard to write about because it always leaves
the opinion that it sounds generic. Plenty of bands mix up thrash
metal and hardcore, but no one does it quite so well as Send More
Paramedics. If you already know their assault of thrash metal
and hardcore, then you know how fucking cool the whole thing is.
If not, be prepared to have the fuck eaten out of your fucking
face. Played at speeds and with a proficiency that doesn't befit
the fact that they are, after all, mindless monsters hell-bent
on propping up their decomposing cadavers with fresh neuron juice,
it is the manic, spastic nature of their guitar blasts and drum
beats that define the sound of zombiecore. Just as The Hallowed
and the Heathen added a more punk edge to the zombiecore archetype,
hints of heavy metal occasionally filter through the lead lines
of The Awakening. Lacking a true shout-along like “Zombie
Crew,” the album is none the weaker than its predecessor.
Built of blistering thrash, hardcore, punk and metal, it delivers
a full cranial blow out and is still just about the fucking coolest
sound coming out of the U.K. at the minute – even if the
production does betray B'Hellmouth's voice once or twice. But
to be fair, what the fuck else do you expect from the rotting
larynx of the recently undeceased? - Disk 1: 8.5/10
The second disk is a different world altogether. Floating ambiances
of keyboards and synthetic drums create the instrumental soundscapes
of the end of the world. Unsettling as it is, the menacing threat
grows throughout, beginning as a shadow and ending up with arms
reaching for shotguns. Reaching into the darkened corners of the
synthetic music world, disk two finds the murky, gloomy ends of
the imagination. Portraying all the moods of the apocalypse, where
faint glimmers of hope mix with an ominous dread, the soundtrack
is where the true steps forward of The Awakening are found.- Disk
2: 9/10
Subba
Culture
Zombiecore has awoken again – it is moaning at your door,
it has just slaughtered and eaten your pet dog and once again
it's spurting out your stereo like a severed digestive tract...
Yes Send More Paramedics are back with their third album 'The
Awakening' a two disc concept album (disc two providing the disturbing
soundtrack to an imaginary film concept) delivering psychotic
undead guitar attack thrash that will beat your brains to a crimson
pulp. Sucking dry the heavy metal genre it sounds like Minor Threat
digging up Slayer's graves tracks off 'The Awakening' seem more
purposeful, laden with Zombie B movie samples and a loose cinematic
(all be it zombie) narrative. The evil screaming and horror harmonics
of ' Virulence' bash you unmercilessly whilst the mutilated hardcore
gushes of 'Twilight of the Flies' will certainly have you reaching
for your nearest crucifix / shotgun – however you are so
inclined. If you still haven't seen this band live yet, then do!!!
It is a gut ridden spectacle of decapitation, the costumes, the
zombie dancing, the gore... it is bloody genius. 'The Awakening'
proves that not only are Send More Paramedics an awesome rotting
proposition in the (grey) flesh but they maim with the best of
them in the studio too
Zap
Bang Magazine
“It is 2025. The global environmetal crisis continues to
worsen… International politics is in a dire strait…
In the midst of the maelstrom the first signs of the true crisis
go unnoticed. Reports are confused as to the origin of the viral
pandemic whic sweeps the world…” Yes… it’s
a zombie-themed metal concept album — well what else can
you expect from a band who give their names as B’Hellmouth,
Medico, X Undead and El Diablo? This is 80s metal infused with
a modern hardcore punk edge — both in the vocals which take
their near-atonal cues as much from early thrash front men like
Tom Araya as punk’s shouty brethrens, and in the music,
which hits muted note riffs at speed one after the other, stepping
up to big power riff choruses.The band’s zombie-core mood
is fed in through the lyrics as well as an abundance of quotes
— “Sever”s Bolt Thrower-style opening riff introduced
by a girl disgustedly reflecting “What have we done to ourselves!”
Well the sleeve’s liner notes detail the whole story and
it’s been given some thought. Nicely, it actually seems
to be a thought-out extrapolation of modern day failings and not
just some typically lame-ass attempt to write a zombie film. Although
lets be honest, all zombie films have pretty much the same plot.
But what’s interesting here with The Awakening is that it
is not actually a film, well not yet anyway, it still remains
a musical project, but it’s a bit more than just an album,
it’s a two disc set — the second CD offering The Awakening
Soudtrack, a whole record of awesomely perfect horror/b-movie
music (think John Carpenter, think Goblin, think Charles Bernstein,
think loads of atmosphere, think a hell of a lot of synths). And
the second disc even doubles up as an enhanced CD including both
a couple of earlier videos and an audio version of the plot synopsis,
read over the soundtrack music! Fans of Sacred Reich, Slayer,
Stormtroopers of Death and generally thrash, 80s in particular,
will probably have a field day with the main album — it
even has a song (“This Crowd is Crushing Me”) that
starts with an intense high speed, wailing, fast top-end guitar
solo — and it is definitely a fascinating package. The cover
art is pretty terrible but suits the zombie mood, there’s
a load of great riffs, solos and grooves and if you can get on
with the vocals (they are definitely the least attractive thing
about the music — even though B’Hellmouth (!) can
growl as well as he does on “Scapegoat” he generally
just chooses to shout) then it’s a winner. What i’m
left wondering though is… can they act?
Metal
Mayhem
Although I am going to try and avoid it, if you sense an aspect
of bias about this review it is because I fucking love this band.
Their latest offering "The Awakening" is hopefully a
sign of a band truly beginning their deserved ascendancy to the
top.
Even though everything about Send More Paramedics is very tongue-in-cheek,
from the onstage attire of zombie outfits and lyrics about the
un-dead to samples from bad 80's horror films, they play loud,
fast and aggressive music that is undeniably genuine. The new
album is (in search of a better word) better than its two predecessors.
The production is a step-up from the last record, while being
polished and more professional sounding; it also manages to avoid
taking anything away from the overall rawness of the band and
the songs take on a vastly improved quality of sound.
The backbone combination of thrash metal and hardcore punk is
still the basis of the record but the band has included some slower
and, dare I say it, more melodic sections in the new songs. While
almost the entire of "A Feast for the Fallen" is played
at breakneck speed, "The Awakening" demonstrates more
controlled elements including some impressive guitar work and
a more mature vocal sound. Don't get me wrong, it isn't a jaw-dropping
difference and the 15 songs on the record last only 40 minutes
and show the diehard fans that the overall pace and thrash rhythms
in the songs haven't been totally lost.
Tracks such as "Follow Your Programming" and "Anthropophagi"
are fast and uncompromising and could easily be at home on either
of the other full-lengths while "Everything Is Not Under
Control" and "Blood Fever" are two good examples
of the new, slower SMP sound with both songs containing furiously
played guitar solos and mosh-pit-inducing breakdowns. The intro
riff to "Sever" sounds like it has come straight from
"South of Heaven" and the song only goes on demonstrating
the bands Slayer influences by a vicious kick-in to some lightning
fast riffing that Mr. King himself would be proud of.
"Flail Of God" is distinctly SMP, fast and rough with
machine gun drumming, along with some superb additional growling
vocals courtesy of Jeff Walker, it is one of my personal picks
of the record. The whole album refuses to ease up on the furious
pace and "Transmission" ends the album on another slice
of double-time-played controlled madness.
You can always tell the quality of an album by the level of sadness
you feel after it is over, I enjoyed every minute of this record
and by the time the last song rang out I was left gagging for
more.
I believe the Leeds boys have done well in creating an album which
is both highly entertaining and a solid step forward for the band.
"The Awakening" has stormed its way to becoming one
of my personal favourite albums of 2006 and I would highly recommend
it to any thrash and hardcore fans.
|
