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MÖRTI VIVENTI
The Day The Dead Returned…

UKEM (2015)
Rating: 7/10

Lincolnshire was the last place I expected the latest thrash assault to come from, but indeed it has and it’s all down to one man; Adrian “Aidy” J. Heathershaw, who has created one merciless juggernaut. Indeed, while this may be a case of UK thrash-by-numbers, Heathershaw clearly has enough fire in his belly to make the songs stick in the head long after the needle has lifted.

The Day The Dead Returned… boasts seven solid and bloody noisy tracks which roll over you like a bulldozer intent on laying to waste the rising corpses he speaks of.

As opener ‘Hell On Earth’ comes barging its way through we’re immediately notified that this is going to be a pulverising slab of no frills thrash metal built upon a foundation of bruising riffs, stereotypical yet lethal vocal sneers and lyrics which have no need to be subtle. “Dawn of the apocalypse, Birth of a child marked 6-66, Random killings, spreading madness and rage, Global terror consumes, our fucking world going insane”, barks Heathershaw as he’s most certainly pissed off about the carnage of the earth, and it’s all played out to a soundtrack of hammering percussion and relentless explosions of thrash. “God won’t save you, Satan rules you” he smirks, and I believe him because by the time the track has finished you’ll be left picking up your brains from the floor… unless of course the undead has already feasted upon them.

And the battery keeps on coming. However, the only glitch for me is that some of the cuts are a tad too long, because while they showcase a maturity and confidence, the seven-minute title track and the 13-minute instrumental ‘The Arrival Of The Anti-God’ could have benefited from being trimmed. In fact, all of the tracks offered clock in at over four-and-a-half minutes, but one has to love the pummelling action of ‘Whorehouse Of The Undead’ which is delivered in old school fashion without resorting to overt comedy, while another beefy number of note is the six-minute ‘Spawn Of Another Kind’. However, of the seven cuts I’m more tempted by the seething ‘Maniac / Face The Shape’ and closing anthem ‘Thrash Or Die’ which seems to be the sort of track we’ve become accustomed to from contemporary thrash acts. But one cannot deny the fury of this debut album, and for what it lacks in originality it most certainly makes up for in punch.

I sense that Heathershaw has no care for being original, and as the waves of speed and brutality come thick and fast I’m impressed by the obstinacy and left with the words from ‘Thrash Or Die’ ringing through my ears long after this chapter has been reduced to rubble… “Ignorant fuckers we’ll kill ’em all, Immortal our legions never fall”.

Neil Arnold

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