Artist: Dead Animal Assembly Plant
Album: Bring Out The Dead
Label: Armalyte Industries
Release Date: 26/03/2021
Country: United States
We take a look at Dead Animal Assembly Plant‘s much anticipated fourth full-length album Bring Out The Dead, released March 26th on Armalyte Industries.
The band hail from Portland, Oregon and have an extensive release catalog spanning over a decade. On the album we have Zach Wager (vocals), Eric ‘Zerø’ Bergen (guitars), Rebecca ‘Buzz’ Wager (guitars), Nick ‘Nix’ Snyder (bass) and Jason ‘Skorn’ Moore (drums), with guest musicians Lulu Black (violin on Sacred Disgrace) and Regulo Junior (additional guitars on Behold the Righteous Plague). The album was mixed by Fernando Ruiz Jr at Primal Recording Studio Portland and was mastered by Kevin Hahn at Opal Studios Portland. The killer artwork is courtesy of the incredibly talented Mothmeister who I’ve been following for some time now and I suggest you do too.
The band have always had their own unique slaughterhouse/evil gore crazed, apocalyptic aesthetic and this album continues in this style. Picture Mad Max meets Texas Chainsaw Massacre. According to the band one Wilhelm Schröder opened the Sweet Meats Slaughterhouse in 1895. He was a leading meat producer in the US until tragedy struck and all of the cattle in his town passed away from disease. To combat this Wihelm turned to the townspeople as a source of meat until they realised what was going on and fed him through his own machinery. Flash forward roughly 100 years and the processing plant that had remained dormant all of this time suddenly re-awoke all on its own and drew in the members of DAAP, each of which have their own dark, twisted histories and agendas. You can read more about these here.
I hope you enjoy dark, heavy and catchy as hell industrial metal, because that’s exactly what Dead Animal Assembly Plant (DAAP) have in store for you with this release. Well to be completely accurate it’s a blend of industrial, rock and metal with a sprinkling of psycho rockabilly thrown in for good measure. That dark, unsettling undertone that their music is known for is still going strong. There’s also a certain unhinged, unstable sort of energy present that accompanies the band’s themes of flesh craved killers and issuers in of the apocalypse. The machine-like nature of the album reflects those themes of a meat processing facility, giving the effect of being fed through the machinery itself. There is also an effective use of repetition throughout the album giving it a sort of hypnotic effect and making you lose track of time with songs. I don’t want to make comparisons to other bands but for those of you who need that sort of thing I guess you could compare the band to PIG, early Marilyn Manson and early Rob Zombie in that it has that slimy sort of creeper vibe to it, but with harsher instrumentals and vocals more in line with bands like Ministry, KMFDM or Rammstein and darker, more unhinged themes than any of these bands.
Zack’s vocals are truly captivating, coming across as completely deranged at many points on the album. His overall style is extremely menacing and ranges from harsh shouted vocals to slimy cleaner vocals that are both sung and essentially spoken at varying times. Both vocal styles have plenty of distortion and effects applied to them giving them that much more emphasis. Luckily for all of us the vocals are easy to understand because you don’t want to miss out on the lyrics/themes being expressed throughout the album. The amount of variety presented vocally on the album is impressive and keeps you captivated from start to finish.
Instrumentally speaking the guitar work is exactly what you would want from an industrial metal album of this nature. The combined assault of Eric and Rebecca makes for plenty of killer riffage throughout. We get work ranging from cold machine-like industrial style parts, to heavy, dirty, rumbling hooks, right through to more upbeat, up-tempo rock/rockabilly style segments. Bass wise I have nothing but praise for Nick who gives us some absolutely filthy basslines throughout the album, consistently killing it. The drum work on the album is equally as impressive, assaulting the listener throughout. We all know how crucial drums are in an industrial metal album and Jason does not disappoint. The actual industrial electronic elements on the album are fantastic and when paired with the instrumental parts creates a truly complete and full-bodied wall of sound. Many of the unusual sound samples and effects add a huge amount of character to the release, helping to maintain that overarching horror theme.
Lastly, I just have to mention the final track on the album God’s Gonna Cut You Down feat. Outer Stace (DAAP X NANDO), which is the only song on the release not written by the band, rather being derived from an old American folk song. This is one hell of a track and has a very unique feel and energy to it. It is always a treat to hear bands play with old folk songs in new and interesting ways and this is one of those times where the band pulls it off.
Overall, I was hugely impressed by the release and rank this is my top industrial metal album so far this year. The sheer energy and aggression on the album, coupled with the captivating atmosphere and fascinating horror themes make this a real winner. If you enjoy industrial metal in any capacity this is essential listening.
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