Real-Life Death

Waking the Cadaver has garnered mountains of hate through the years for their early musical style bearing to the robes of lousy production, inhaled vocals and cheesy lyrics. Three years following, the band came up with second LP Beyond Cops, Beyond God, yet it also landed as a failure to some. Now another three years have passed and the band has put out yet another full-length which absolutely crushes. On this album Real-life Death, Cadaver are seen taking a bigger step outside just slam death metal and breakdowns where they take in a fair share of other influences.

Honestly the whole real reason I think originally why Waking the Cadaver garnered their early hate was because how they were confused as being a "deathcore band". Waking the Cadaver is not deathcore, they're best described as a slam band that plays the occasional deathcore-ish breakdown while holding onto some element of hardcore in the background to the same value of Madball of Sheer Terror and that's relevant to mention on this record where brutal crushing New Jersey death metal is fused with bits of hardcore scattered in select sections. Now after explaining their sound thoroughly, I think it's now obvious that this is absolutely not what deathcore is or what deathcore sounds like. In my honest critique, Waking the Cadaver's early hate on their debut album Perverse Recollections of a Necromangler originates from the kind of people seeking out for a band bearing to the sounds of Whitechapel, Carnifex or Suicide Silence, instead they encountered a slam-ready brutal death metal outfit with low-fi production who enjoys the occasional breakdown. And at the same time, the band also received hate from the general death metal fanbase simply for the fact that they were mistakenly labeled as "a deathcore band" (which is a crime in metal so to speak).

Years later, I believe the band really unlocked their potential. Real-life Death is a blast, not only does it fit to the realm of speedy death metal songs but also retains something that could keep slam fans and breakdown loving scene kids interested at the same time. Waking the Cadaver's fan base is a huge mixed bag, pleasing all their fans can definitely be seen as a difficult move, but I believe they might have nailed it on this one. First track alone sounds like something that could have been included on their Perverse Recollections of a Necromangler record based on its riffs and vocals in the song's first 30 seconds. Dennis Morgan's drumming at that is no longer a joke. His poor performances inducted to the likes of early songs such "Tire Iron Emblugeonment" and "Chased Through the Woods by a Rapist" were showcased as lousy and unprofessional statistics to the kind of music Waking the Cadaver were delivering while his kit was completely out-of-tune at that. Here, it's varied and impressive skinsman work, providing appropriate fills and variations of tom and snare. He definitely improved to the point where it doesn't even sound like the same drummer.

Don Campan this time around has traded in inhaled growls for an exhaled bark. He still uses inhales in a fair amount of areas such as the first 30 seconds of the first track, but his exhale vocals are more abundant than inhales this time around. Not to mention, before I get ahead of myself, I also want to make note that the guitarists here are definitely a step up from every other record by the group, Mike Mayo has put up his improvement big time since Beyond Cops while newcomer John Hartman injects a syringe filled with Hatebreed-influenced hardcore in specific places found on the album and even on one entire song; "Business as Usual", where the hardcore punk influence is prevalent when he isn't drawing influence from the likes of death metal such as Exhumed and Napalm Death riff-wise.

As far and varied as a death metal band can go, Waking the Cadaver don't show up too short on their third outing proving they can make for improvement in every possible way. While the album is only 8 tracks long, the songs are powerful, the riffs are blaring brutal, the vocals are sick and drumming is outstanding. I feel like everyone that previously doubted this band deserves a good smack on the face (including myself). Even I was once a hater, but this album has made a fan out of me.