Now if you've been around this brutal Christian music scene for a long...long...long time you may actually remember the band Drop Dead. If you've been around a long...long time you may remember some people talking about the band.
Death by Fusion is the name of this CD and it's a pretty cool name being as it is in essence the fusion of 3 demo tapes onto a CD. Drop Dead was one of those many many bands that never made it to the signing stage, and only got to produce some demo tapes to peddle in the backs of magazines like Narrow Path. The demos are entitled Ending the Sadness from 1988, Drop Dead from 1989, and finally Our Forgotten Destiny from 1990.
This CD was put together in 1994 and copyrighted by 'Hipswervy Records' if you think that might help in locating a copy of it. The entire CD is layered with that cassette 'fuzz' sound you get from older tapes. I can only assume that whoever put this together only had some mid-quality copies of these demos when they recorded the media for CD pressing. Still once the song gets going it's not noticeable only in the quiet in between songs do you hear it.
To be honest the first set of tracks from Ending the Sadness really comes off as thrashy death. The vocals are simply harshly spoken but the guitars do have touches of death riffs here and there. The drumming peaks to double bass but never fully embraces it. The quality of these songs is extremely low, with the mix being the worst part it. mainly the vocals are mixed way too high, kind sounds like a karaoke machine with the volume on the mic high. Still the band is amazingly skilled and playing some very extreme music at a time when no other Christian bands were approaching this. 6 tracks total from this era of the band.
Next up are another 6 tracks this time from the demo Drop Dead. Better production, more intensity in the guitars and the drumming is more aggressive. Also it would appear someone else back then told them that the mix was wrong because the vocals are much lower. Plus they used this echo effect on the vocals giving them a harsher sound. This is definitely where the band got seriously labeled a death metal band, never the less the speedy thrash tendencies would show through on several tracks.
Then comes the bands last 8 tracks from their demo Our Forgotten Destiny. Again everything increases from the last release. The aggression in the music, the quality of the recording and the vocals are now growled. Yes they have truely transformed before your ears from a thrash band to a death metal band. Although once in awhile they did use this odd little effect on the vocals to make them, for lack of a better word, wavery. I think it works as it gives a real creepy sound to it. The guitar leads are much improved and slowed down again making it more of a death effect. The mix brings the vocals back up just a bit and now they are perfect.
No lyrics in this CD and not needed for the first two parts, I can make out about 90% of the third part as well, as the growl is pretty clean sounding. As I've said in other reviews this is not the greatest CD you've ever heard, and you won't be running to it time and time again. However it is such a fundamental part of the brutal Christian music history that for someone like me, it's simply a must have CD. You very well might be the same, and if so your quest to find a copy of this has begun. I wish you luck.
8/10
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