DANCE WITH THE DEAD “Driven To Madness”

By Dr. Abner Mality

A guilty pleasure of mine is “electro-metal”...a mix of driving synth beats and metal riffs. Bands like KMFDM, RAMMSTEIN and even ROB ZOMBIE to a degree fall under this heading. A lot of it has a horror movie component, mixing the sounds of GOBLIN and JOHN CARPENTER with the music. To be honest, it’s often kind of brain dead and not really challenging to listen to, but it can be fun and catchy.

DANCE WITH THE DEAD is a Cali duo prowling this territory and they prefer to leave vocals out of it, dealing strictly with instrumentals. I’m impressed that they managed to grab JOHN CARPENTER and his son CODY to join in on “March of the Dead”, which starts this album with more of a crunchy metal vibe than is apparent elsewhere. Their songs are fairly short, featured punchy dance beats and toss in simple guitar riffs and solos. Some like “Kiss of the Creature” and “Start The Thaw” have more of an icy, glacial feel while others like “Hex” and “Firebird” have more of an intense driving thrust.

It’s nothing that hasn’t been done before...many times, in fact...but it’s cool background music for driving through an urban landscape at 2 or 3 in the morning as the neon lights whiz by. Club music for mutants…

DANCE WITH THE DEAD