Maximum Metal Rating Legend

Construcdead: Voiladead 2004 Black Lodge Records Reviewed by Ajax

Track Listing1) Pinhook 2) Rise 3) Bricks 4) Hate 5) Wounded 6) Cancer 7) The Saviour 8) Disbelief 9) New Sin 10) Re-Arrange 11) Turn 12) Bitter End

Featuring guest appearances by members of Soilwork, the cover screams. Inside the booklet you'll learn that three Soilwork members: Björn "speed" Strid and Henry Ranta (vocals and drums on "Bitter End"), and Peter Wichers (solo guitar on "Turn") appear on two of the album's twelve tracks. On the back, you'll notice that the band's singer Peter Tuthill (besides having two different pupils) is even wearing a "figure number 5" worker!

As I suspected from the cover, Construcdead play pretty groovy melodic death in the vein of Soilwork, the more recent In Flames work, Omnium Gatherum and the likes.

The album kicks of with "pinhook" which is more of a death/trash song, but with the next couple of songs "Bricks", "Hate", and "Wounded" the melodic death shines through in all it's splendor: deep grunts ("The Saviour") varied with clear sung choruses, catchy riffing (the solo on "Cancer"), groovy rythms, this album has got it all. The album ends with "Bitter End", one of two of the album's songs which are injected with Soilwork musicianship. The songs are pretyy easy to follow and tend to linger in your head for a while which, is of course a good thing. You don't have to listen to these songs five or six times in a row before they settle in, they just do so from the start and that's one of the strong points of the album for me--no complicated riffs, lyrics or musical arrangements. The songs are prety varied within themselves and just make you keep you banging your head for more!

Concerning the Soilwork sound, you shouldn't be dissapointed, this album breaths Soilwork all the way! If I would not have known better, I would have guessed this was just another Soilwork album. And that's also my main point of criticism: this album could as well be the follow up to "figure number 5". Although I don't want to detract from Contrudead's craftmanship, the two bands could be exchanged for one another perfectly well. When you listen to songs like "Bricks", "Hate", "Cancer", and "Disbelief", you can't stop wondering--where have I heard this sound before? The answer is: the last two Soilwork albums. Just listen to any clear sung chorus: it's Soilwork all the way. This isn't necesarilly a bad thing, but if you're in for some new and refreshing death metal you'll be disapointed.

Don't get me wrong. If you're a Soilwork fan, you can't go wrong with this album and if you're in melodic death you should definitely give it a try. But when you're looking for something new and innovative...I suggest you look a bit further. Construcdead doesn't bring anything new but they are good at what they are doing. What they lack in originality, they compensate with a passion for melody and grooves.

This one will definitely stay in my cd player for quite a while. This is melodic death how it should be!

In addition to the diamond case Violadead, is also available as a limited digipack edition, which gives you alternate cover art and three bonus tracks.

--Ajax 05.19.04