You Can't Kill What's Already Dead: Anthology 1985-1988

Death Militia were one of those supremely well-hidden gems of USPM (despite being from Canada). Even more obscure than classic bands like Enchanter, Matthias Steele, or Oblivion, Death Militia are perhaps the most overlooked quality band I've yet to come across - I've never seen anyone talk about them even once, anywhere, even though they're quite rad at times. I'm not sure quite why that is, except maybe that their material is quite hard to track down - I myself had a difficult time finding this album, but it was well worth the wait. While not all the material on this You Can't Kill What's Already Dead compilation is worthwhile, with 75 minutes of music that's not really a problem; you still easily have a solid full-length of songs here.

The release does have a rather disjointed sound, as compilations often do; the first seven tracks, which are taken from their last two demos, are all quite good; aggressive, well-written, even (relatively) well-produced slabs of USPM/thrash. The vocalist is excellent, with a gruff, manly tone not unlike that of, say, Keith Deen (Holy Terror) with a bit of J.D. Kimball (Omen) thrown in. Simply put, this guy rules. The riffs are dark and vicious, and there's even an acoustic interlude or two thrown in ("Forgive Me Father"). The thrash influence is fairly prominent, with both an album cover and a riffing style reminiscent of early Artillery. The USPM component hearkens to some of the darker, more occult acts like Hexx or Omen's The Curse. However, this isn't derivative at all; in fact, with the best material being from 1987-88, it's unlikely the group was even much influenced by the aforementioned acts, and rather were influenced by the same acts that those bands were.

The first seven tracks are really all quite great, with no particular standouts aside from lyrically ("The Family" being about Charles Manson's cult, which is always a cool topic). The songwriting is very fresh and inspired, with a thick, gloomy guitar tone and an excellent mix, as well as riffs that will melt your face off. The album doesn't necessarily drop off in songwriting quality after that, but the production quality definitely falls, and the next four tracks are all instrumental, which just doesn't interest me much. The sound quality is very poor, it's sound like it's probably a rehearsal. Luckily, the last four songs do have vocals, and although the sound quality and songwriting quality are below that of the first seven, they're still not bad. The sound is much more primitive, with less USPM influence and more straight up thrash a la Artillery, but they do the style well enough. The main problem is the production, which is really poor here; not unlistenable, but not very far from it. Overall I'd recommend the first seven tracks to any USPM fan and the last four to diehard melodic thrash fans; this isn't the best band out there, but they certainly deserve to be more well-known than they are.