Dead Brain Cells

This was one of the first "crossover" bands I heard when I was a teenager, and it made quite the impression on me. Phil Dakin's belligerent vocals and the fast & furious riffing (with only brief, jagged solos here and there) and drumming was like a hammer to the back of the head back then and still holds up pretty well today. DBC were quite underrated and never made it too far outside of Canada, as far as I know (at least they never played my hometown in Boston that I remember in any capacity) , and it's a shame, because they had something here.

I especially like "Lies", with Dakin sounding especially pissed off as he spits out his nasal, snarling vocals, and "Public Suicide" (especially vicious lyrics on this tune). The rest of the album roars by like a trucker in a hurry to get to the truck stop so he can piss, eat, and get a hooker, and hits about as hard. Very hard, that is. They were not at all "groove" oriented like the current crop of bad metalcore bands out there who think that hardcore is slow and dirgey odes to beating people up to beat people up to--they were faster than a speeding bullet by the standards of the mid-80s, and it was great! Not Cryptic Slaughter blast beat fast, but just on the verge of out of control. Unfortunately, they were left by the wayside, and more's the pity. This is an underrated crossover gem that needs to be heard!