Whoops, what an unusual cover artwork for a Death Metal band I have to say! It looks like a comic and I would not have a chance to educe to the contained music emerging as Death’n’Roll with characteristic and charismatic vocals. No wonder, because the blessedly Martin van Drunen (former in Pestilence) is responsible for the vocal performance; but DEATH BY DAWN should not be reduced to the contribution of this well-known vocal artist, because also the instrumental fraction offers all sorts of strengths – some fine guitar solos and harmonies can be heard.
Above all, fun stands in the foreground, gadgetries are quite dispensable for these guys, it is done straight forward, without embellishments or complicated measure changes! The sound is a little bit washy and has both advantages and handicaps: on the one hand it conveys an authentic sound characteristics of nativeness, and lo and behold, One Hand, One Foot… And A Lot Of Teeth was recorded in only five days in the Tanztee studio (Rheine, Germany) and banned the raw band-feeling and delight in playing directly on tape. Then again, the necessary clearness is missing, but this is surely meant this way to let the tracks sound dirty and rough. I am surprised by the above average playing time of the songs, which lies partly beyond the eight (!) minutes duration, which is uncommon for a Death’n’Roll group. The before mentioned joy in playing paired with mangy charm is put into perspective by the in parts lacking variation and as a consequence I have a feeling of upcoming boredom after the first half of the record. This aspect should not mean that the songs are of minor quality now, but there are no delicious melodies, no ear candy refrains or the one or other extraordinary idea. So this release tinges well indeed, but uniform and unspectacular yet. The intermezzo in The Nicotine Lobby stands out from the crowd conveniently and also the longest and concluding song Not Afraid To Die breaks the tradition of equability and lowers the speed from time to time – and now the faster parts operate much more effective because of the contrast. After seven minutes this track gets really funny: a melody to whistle concludes the record winking!
I really ask myself why this tactic is not used more often. There are surely some reminiscences to Pestilence – not only because of the inimitable voice, but also musically some songs like Parliament Of Decadence refer to the cult band.
I think One Hand. One Foot… And a Lot Of Teeth is felicitous for a debut album, DEATH BY DAWN should take care about alternating tempo next time, so that the music gets more interesting and escapes from the fear of become stuck in a uniform (even though well done) mid tempo swamp.