Review Summary: Old school death metal with balls of steel.
Resurrections was a band that formed in Florida in the early 90's and broke up shorty after releasing their old school death metal opus "Embalmed Existence". This album isn't for everyone, but it will have fans of the old school Florida scene on their knees praying to their overlooked gods. The band reformed in 2008 to release the album "Mistaken for Dead" which also failed to get noticed.
The thing that sticks out most on the album is the wicked vocals and guitar rhythms. Songs introduced by the sinister noises that come out of Paul Degoyler's mouth give the album an overall creepy feel. Resurrection created this album with one thing on their mind, to sicken the weak with some old school crushing death metal, and at that they did not fail. The production on the album is very crisp unlike some older death metal records, this gives the overall sound a great boost which is always a good thing. The guitar parts are fairly varied changing from very fast riffing to slow apocalyptic infectious riffs. The solos on the album kick mutiple asses, ranging from fast and shredding, to slow melodic solos. Both are done skillfully and would be a tear to the eye of a guitarist.
The vocals have a snarl to them, they are not quite the typical death metal growl, if compared to anyone though, it would be Malevolent Creation vocalist Brett Hoffmann. The spoken word introductions work effectively, some do find them quite annoying though due to the fact that they are used on nearly every song. I can see why some would find this tedious but it feels as though it creates the atmosphere for the song.
The bass for the most part is inaudible, on occasion it leaks it's way into the mix but when this does happen it is brief and nearly unnoticable, which is a shame because when the bass does creep into songs it sounds sick and would of really added to the album if it stayed throughout. The drumming on the album is also consistent, constant double bass pounds throughout the album, this style of drumming would typically become boring but on this album it is not the case. The constant pulse pounding beat blends all too well with the riffs and atmosphere.
There really isn't one weak song on the album, none of the songs drag nor does the album as a whole. The only track on the album that has been openly complained about is "War Machine" the KISS cover song. This song gave the album a good change in pace but I don't like it's placement as the last song on the album, it would of been more fitting to put it in the middle, as a kind of break from the blistering thrash influenced death metal riffing, overall it is still a good song though. The majority of the songs do have the same structure, but each individual song manages to remain fresh sounding and entertaining.
The bottom line is if you are in need of death metal with that old school fresh into the 90's feel this is the cure for the itch, the album maintains it's fury and manages to create a fairly punishing sound, but for some reason it failed to be noticed in the death metal scene that Florida had going. While this isn't exactly the most creative album you'll ever hear, it is a damn good one and should be heard by any fan of the genre. Overall I give this album a firm 4.5 out of 5. Coming from a person who is obsessed with death metal as a whole, I can say with pride that this would most easily make it into my top 10 death metal albums of all time. Check it out now.
