Bit of an institution are Dead. This trio of Germans have been sleazily rocking since way back in 1991 and their line-up has been pretty consistent throughout that time. They describe their sound as ‘erotic death metal’ and if you consider yourself a ‘slave to abysmal perversity’ than this is probably going to be right up your back alley. We could have fun here and litter this review with past album and song titles, there are a stack of them out there, ‘Delicious Taste of Vaginal Excrements’ being just one that has the band describing themselves as the dirtiest death metal ensemble in Germany. I’m not sure that the likes of Cock And Ball Torture and some of the other scat-mongers in the country will agree but they have just done a recent photo session with a pig looking at their Facebook page, so we will not accuse them of telling porkies.

It seems like the band have been at the least inactive if not Dead for a while and this is their first release since a split with excellent Czech act Embalming Theatre in 2012. After being drawn to the cover of this album looking like it’s straight out a Schulmädchen-Report film it ended up right in my lap after all the other reviewers gave it a wide berth. Oh well let’s get sleazy.

For a start I’m not entirely sure if this lot have mellowed with age, perhaps they have settled down with Fraulein’s but I doubt it. For me this is tongue firmly inserted in anus rather than downright filth. Track titles such as ‘Ass Metal’ and ‘Risking The Beer MILF’ just ain’t coming at you with a rubber dong and clubbing you over the head with it but luckily the music is suitably hard and fast. After proclaiming that it is indeed good to be back the band drop us down the proverbial shitter with ‘Snakey Brown’ an ode to curling out a poo. Naturally a song like this is gonna cause a bit of a Pungent Stench and there’s a dollop of them early on in their career along with bands such as Impaled, Ghoul, Blooduster and pretty much anything released in the heyday of Razorback Records. All three of the band take a dump vocally keeping that side of things fresh and fragrant. Things go from low growls to higher gurgles and evil cackles, the sorts of sounds you would make on the bog basically (no just me then) and the guitars churn around like a night after a bad curry and beer sesh. It’s gory sound of death here with sexual overtones that leaves you feeling like a serial killer who went out to dismember mamma and ended up sleeping with her and buying flowers. Things grind away nicely over the songs but we never descend quite into pornogrind territory and one gets the impression that these elder statesmen want to keep things traditional and leave that sort of things to the young un’s. Songs like Call Of Beauty even have some melody and guitar solos about them and it’s all quite accessible.

The band express themselves in English and lyrically this is definitely not suitable for the kids, luckily most of it is pretty much unintelligible unless like me you got the lyric booklet and opened it. I’m not quite ready to take to the streets with this on headphones and sing along to “Ass Metal, Raise Your Fist, Ass Metal, Squeal And Twist’ but you get the idea. I should also mention that there are a couple of great covers included here. Wendy o Williams is unlikely to be turning in her grave and no doubt would appreciate Dead’s punky rendition of ‘Butcher Baby’ and the spirit of The Sonics number ‘The Witch’ is nearly given a respectful makeover.

You get what you get here and it’s all done in the best possible taste, although probably not if you are one of the PC brigade. At least unlike receiving a rim-job in a Reeperbahn toilet you are unlikely to catch anything listening to this…then again?

(7/10 Pete Woods)

https://www.facebook.com/deadofficial

https://fda-records.bandcamp.com/album/a-dirty-mind-is-a-joy-forever