DROPDEAD
Dropdead
ARMAGEDDON
Powerviolence pioneers return without missing a beat
It’s been 22 years since Dropdead’s last full-length, but given the seething energy and righteous vitriol radiating off this new effort, you’d be forgiven for mistaking it for an old recording. The quartet’s razor-sharp, sub-minute blasts of furious hardcore punk riffing, skin-flaying beats and political lyrics are more vital and incendiary than ever, thanks to a Kurt Ballou production that really captures the band’s live intensity. Bob Otis’s distinctive vocals are noticeably hoarser and less forceful than his shrill screeches of yore, but the his passionate, articulate lyrics have never sounded clearer, taking aim at the rise of fascism on the blistering Stoking The Flame and organised religion on the lumbering, moshpit-inciting Book Of Hate.