Welcome to the Real World

This act was the continuation of the heroes Deadly Blessing only minus the band’s arguably finest asset, the singer Ski. The rest of the line-up is almost intact, the bass player another not very pressing absence, the guys willing to give themselves another try with this 3-tracker which also sees them moving away from the more speed-oriented explorations of the other outfit with heavier, meatier execution, also epitomizing some of the angrier, groovier vibes of the new decade to mixed impressions.

“Stand in Line” is a bouncy, but friendly quasi-groover which may disappoint the Deadly Blessing fans some of whom may not even continue listening beyond this number also pulled back by the very muddy, stifling sound quality which hampers every single instrument including the vocal exploits. Mentioning the latter, the new vocalist is the furthest possible departure from Ski’s over-the-top dramatics, acquitting himself with a not very eventful mid-ranged semi-clean baritone. “Remove Your Face” is a semi-balladic doomster with sparse more dynamic developments leaving all the vigour and passion for “Inside Out”, a hard-hitting galloping power/thrasher with some groove still roaming around, trying to break the formidable wall of intense riffage.

It’s probably for the better that this initiative was never extended into a full-time entity cause there wouldn’t have been too many old, maybe even not that many new either, fans to line up for this fairly generic, and not really inspired recording. As a testing of the soil in the early-90’s I guess it served its purpose, but obviously even the band themselves weren’t too happy with the final result hence leaving this project to rest. On the other hand, the real world wasn’t retro epic hymns and belligerent speed/thrashy explosions anymore at the time… so who knows, maybe the guys could have struck bronze, if not gold or silver, if they had carried on.

And here they are once again, with Ski joining his comrades for another spell with the music industry, under the Deadly Blessing moniker, mind you. The “Psycho Drama” compilation released a few months back also contains the demo here plus quite a few unreleased tracks from the Optimus Prime catalogue some of them way more convincing than the triptych here with their less disguised classic metal vigour. If another chapter gets open in the future, I suggest the guys stick to this side of theirs… but I believe all the 90’s groovy/angry demons must have been exorcised by now. Or have they?