If they were playing it a little more seriously then perhaps I could take this more seriously., There are some good ideas, and at times the remind me of Acid Witch. The first actual song, and not the title track that opens the album which is an instrumental intro piece, has crazed death metal vocals going against a horror punk sensibility. Then they go all in on the Misfits tribute. The singer who is going to make or break this is unsure if he can pull this off when he just needs to go ahead and try belting it. They are more punk than metal. His pitch continues to need more breath support and power and then perhaps the notes would not be second-guessed as much.
Lyrically I appreciate what they are going for, It's the pitchy vocals that have me on the fence. "Funeral Home" finds them defaulting back to death metal and vocally it works better even if the riffs are more color by numbers. The necrophilia-themed lyrics continue to be their strong suit. "Black Dahlia" suffering from his weak wavering croon. Once again they redeem themselves to some extent with the death metal of "A Gruesome Find": that follows it. The more midtempo groove they shift into work well. I am not sure how the producer allowed the wavering pitch of these vocals to make it to the final mix. I am not a fan of things like auto-tune, but this album makes a case for it. There was obviously thought to dial the right guitar tone in, so why were the vocals not given as much thought?
There is a more obvious punk pace for "Murder Sweet Murder". They switch into death metal for the chorus which was not as expected and a nice touch. The use of samples on this album works really well. 'Satan is Reall" works better than "Baby Hold On' despite the latter having more of a hook, However, I am not sure about the falsetto note in "Satan is Real" as it seems odd that is the only note hit in key the bulk of the album. When they speed up to more of a punk pace, the vocals fare marginally better. Vocals are one element that I am rather picky about.
The album's most effective riff might lie on "The Begotten". It carries a powerful chug, that shows they can do death metal as well as most. The vocals to "Heartbreak' are so bad it makes the song difficult to listen to. The last song adds clean guitar tones to color it with more nuance. The vocals are belted a little more, which is the best as this guy can do. The chorus is very pitchy. I will give this album a 6 due to the vocals, but the lyrics and themes are cool, they just need more love in post-production.
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