COMMON DEAD - Allegorize
April 16, 2013, 11 years ago
(Independent)
Chicago dude Andrew Laurenson and his one-man project COMMON DEAD released Diatribe last year, and made us take notice with his great riffing skills, held back by some flat vocals and the one-man-ness of it all. He's back now with Allegorize (love that name), and while the vocals still aren't exactly leaping with life, the overall delivery is getting better. The drum programming is sounding more varied and interesting, too. I'm still campaigning for this guy to focus on his riffing and get a full band backing him up: songs like 'Enlightenment' are pure old-school melodic thrash, while 'Outer Harbor' has an almost post-hardcore guitar sound happening. Shame that 'Most People' is placed prominently in the coveted track-three position, as it sounds like the battle of the bands guys taking on PANTERA; all rage but ending up sounding like an immature burst instead of controlled chaos. Overall, like last time out, this album makes you think of ANNIHILATOR, especially with the weird-guy variety ('Venture In Blood' nears pogo-happy punk, or something) and the Canadian underdog feeling that this guy, despite totally not being Canadian, has all over his stuff.
