Translated from the original French
Zombie friends, fear no more for your old bones, in this low world VENGEANCE RISING has a very good one for you!! This powerful quintet of thrashionisers reoffends, indeed, in the "radicalism" department. You surely remember "Human Sacrifice", their first tender on the ring of Thrash Music, where the metallurgeous companions brandished on the sleeve the crucified hand of their King? That crackling LP was in fact only the first rocket of the sound and light show these galvanised troubadours offer us to savour. With "Once Dead", their second projectile of the kind, the partisans of reincarnation could well mosh in their tombs!! This time, the thrashidermist lads have chosen a band of dead men pulling themselves out of their hole (but my word, it is them!!!) whom one glimpses radiantly resurrected. Oh yes, these bawlers show you that death has reigned quite enough and that with Jesus the Crucified One, everything is fine and dandy.
A powerfully mysterious atmosphere, coming out of the smoking strings of our moshers, suddenly falls on the listener, who succumbs illico presto. Given the technicity of their thrashcore with its warmly bluesy tonalities, even the stray ear of the passer-by becomes congested with surprise. The rocky voice orchestrating these hardchorised symphonies (the other members have their holler to let out too!!) probes the Eustachian tubes while the electrifying spirals leaping from the instruments burst your ossicles... Ricocheting special effects of the fish-sonar style (see "Into The Abyss" where Satan plunges into his own perdition) or of the plumbing-and-zinc-work style crystallise the attention. The solos recall the 24 Hours of Le Mans while the fun is not the last thing thrown on the scrapheap. The cheerful concerthrashists thus offer us, exclusively, snatches of chat splashed with jokeomania, a concentrate of the atmosphere of muscular understanding that oxygenates the band. Worth noting too a sublime and thoroughly side-splitting cover of DEEP PURPLE: "Space Truck'In". The titles of the lyrics (as for the content, hello earthquake!!!) pull you without difficulty out of your music-loving stroll: when one swallows, for example, tracks like "Cut Into Pieces" (the fate of those who neglect God), "Frontal Lobotomy" (where the screamer warns of the dangers of perverse philosophies and traditions) or again "The Whipping Post" (which Jesus, out of love, accepted for Humanity), one ends up head-banging without any run-up, because the impact is tremendous. The ironworkers of VENGEANCE RISING have struck again... their guitars on the anvil. The era of the revenants has kicked the bucket, while the prospect of the Resurrection flooded the bountiful world of Thrash Metal with saving radiation!!!
Other coverage for this album
Dead Zine 2002Reviewed by NecRoSarXSeveral steps better than Human Sacrifice, Once Dead finds the legendary thrash metal band Vengeance Rising probably at their peak. The music's tighter, the production's better, the direction's a bit more focused, and Once Dead featured the original band line-up before all but Roger Martinez vamoosed to form Die Happy. Several tracks have made my frequent listen list on here: "Warfare", "Can't…Dead Zine 2002Reviewed by undeadAs with the former Human Sacrifice, this album takes right up in the thrash vein where Vengeance left off. While Sacrifice had scattered pieces of brutality mixed in with slower groove parts, Once Dead churns at a slightly faster pace than the former. I find that this makes for a more enjoyable album. If possible, Roger Martinez's lyrics seem even more bold, and the leads of Larry Farkas are…Heaven's Metal #24Reviewed by Doug Van PeltThis album is hot! It doesn't match the intensity of their classic debut, but it doesn't disappoint. More of the bands roots (the blues-metal of the early 70's) show up here than before, which is performed with guts and precision. I thought the snare drum sound in some songs could've been beefed up some more, but these five guys continue to amaze me with their creativity and prowess at speed…Similar sounding releases
1999Dodgin BulletsSoundtrack to the End of the World
2004The Blinding LightThe Ascension Attempt
1999Castahead / IntercedeSplit
2001xDisciplexDoxology
2001Grace for the FallenField of Blood
2000A Life Once LostOpen Your Mouth For The SpeechlessMore from Vengeance Rising
1988Human Sacrifice[title unknown]Vengeance Video
1991Destruction Comes
1993Anthology
1992Released Upon the Earth
