Deadwalk, a 5-piece, hardcore metal band out of Montreal, Quebec has released their full-length debut album, Scandalous. First off, Deadwalk consists of Greg Kepka former vocalist for Too Pure To Die, and being a fan of TPTD, I was pretty excited to hear his latest venture out into the metal world. Did this highly-anticipated album live up to the hype and expectations that I had for it?

The short answer: No! Not at all! I love brutal, hardcore metal. In fact, that’s probably my favorite genre, and this cd is pretty brutal. However, if you’ve heard anything by Too Pure To Die, then you’ve basically heard this album. On top of that, it comes in at less than 24 minutes long. Really?! 24 minutes is all you got? Was that even worth the time in the studio? I’m not so sure it was. I actually find reviewing this album to be a bit difficult, because there’s barely enough length to even review. About the time that you get into a song, it’s over. It’s like a steak and potatoes dinner, without the steak.

Another complaint is that there’s not much difference between one song or another. Being only 24 minutes long, I’ve actually let it play through at one time about 3 times, and I never even had to look at the song titles, because not one song really stood out. I was never really curious about a particular song.

The guys really do bring it from a brutality standpoint, but that’s about the only redeeming quality that I found in this album. If you have a half hour to kill and need a brutality kick, then this might be the album for you. And given that half hour, you’d still have 6 minutes left to do whatever it is you normally do with 6 minutes.

The production quality of the album is pretty top-notch, with every instrument coming through as it should. And, quite honestly, the musicianship is pretty tight as well. I just wasn’t very impressed with the song-writing itself. I really felt that they could’ve written some better songs, and mixed up the sound a bit. It sounds like one long 24 minute song when heard in its entirety. In fact, with pretty much every song sounding the same, I guess I would prefer a shorter album.

If you’re a fan of Too Pure to Die and prefer shorter albums, you may want to check this album out, but I wouldn’t recommend a purchase. As I said before, I happen to have been a fan of Too Pure To Die, but this album sounds like a rehashed TPTD demo or an EP. While I could appreciate the brutality and the musicianship of Scandalous, I was extremely let down by a cd I’d been waiting for, for quite a while.

2.0/5