Demo

In the december of 2001 I had the chance to see this band in their very early days in my hometown of sunny Middlesbrough in England. There was a long night of hardcore/thrash hybrid bands (with emphasis on the hardcore elements) and Send More Paramedics kicked things off with a bang. The stage show can only be described as well, undead and very entertaining, the vocalist stumbling through the crowd drenched in fake blood looking like a twisted creation of George Romero. The show was chaotic, loud, fast guitars, fast drums, shouting vocals, lots of crowd participation and it was a fucking blast. Impressed by their "Slayer-meets-Misfits" concept I decided to pick the demo up, if only for novelty purposes, for the bargain price of £1, and I had a little chat with the vocalist, and as it turns out he was actually a really pleasant guy and he didn't try to chew my scalp off.

Onto the demo. From the get go it's obvious this band are best heard live, this is the type of chaotic metal which should really be seen in it's rawest and most pure form. The Slayer influence is quite obvious in the guitar riffing at least, but there are very big hardcore overtones in the music, specifically the vocals which are manic shouting. The urgent and rushed sound to the music does definitely fit the band well, this demo tape could very well be the soundtrack for the demise of the living human race. The lyrics are incredibly fun, each of them (obviously) zombie influenced with a lot of comedy value thrown in (see Redneck Holiday).

Overall musically this isn't anything technically stunning, it's just heads down fast thrash/hardcore with a few manic guitar leads and shouted vocals dealing with the rise of the zombie race. I don't know if this demo is "in print" anymore but considering the price I paid it's well worth it and it's quite cool to see how this band have risen from merely a fun sideproject for the members of a "post-hardcore" to being their main focus and being one of the biggest thrash/hardcore bands in the British underground. Basically if you like zombies, dark humour and fast chaotic metal then you'll wanna check this band out.