{"id":69964,"date":"2018-06-11T00:00:05","date_gmt":"2018-06-11T00:00:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/?p=69964"},"modified":"2018-06-13T12:21:01","modified_gmt":"2018-06-13T12:21:01","slug":"live-review-dead-cross-11-06-18","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/live-review-dead-cross-11-06-18\/","title":{"rendered":"DEAD CROSS – The Underworld, Camden, London, England (June 11th, 2018) | Live Reviews @ Metal Forces Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"

DEAD CROSS<\/span>
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\nThe Underworld, Camden, London, England<\/strong><\/span><\/span>
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\nJune 11th, 2018<\/span><\/p>\n

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Mike Patton<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n
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\n\u201cDownload was such a drag,\u201d bemoaned the mercurial Mike Patton, now frontman of Californian hardcore-cum-punk ensemble Dead Cross who decided to make a rather impromptu appearance to a small yet not surprisingly sold out venue in the heart of trendy Camden.<\/p>\n

And with that Patton, resembling a shady character from 80s cop series Miami Vice<\/em> while dressed in vest and vibrant short-sleeve shirt, leapt into the crowd and floundered like a fish out of water whilst a rather orderly \u201cmosh pit\u201d gave in to his contortions and squawks and wails.<\/p>\n

Dead Cross launched into a short and snappy hour-long set consisting mostly of tracks from their impressive self-titled<\/a> debut full-length platter, although judging by the reaction of most of the crowd it seemed that many were there just hoping that the band would launch into a batch of familiar Faith No More or Mr. Bungle songs!<\/p>\n

And that was the problem, Patton clearly being the selling point for tonight\u2019s event, while behind him former Slayer<\/a> sticksman Dave Lombardo rumbled with sinister charm. However, as those in attendance either stared into the pits of their beer or mobile phones, Dead Cross only seemed to prompt reaction when they\u2019d flash a grinding riff to headbang too. Indeed, it reminded me of seeing Patton\u2019s former band Mr. Bungle so many years ago; the audience clearly not \u201cgetting it\u201d in spite of the devastating and punchy grooves on offer and Patton\u2019s menacing stage antics and growls and yaps.<\/p>\n

Dead Cross, in spite of all their weight and aggression, don\u2019t play accessible heavy metal. Instead, they play epileptic, spasmodic shuffles of grinding punk-cum-grindcore. So imagine then the sudden avalanche of appreciative yowls and claps when the combo sneaked in a brief medley of Slayer (\u2018Reign In Blood\u2019) and Faith No More (\u2018Epic\u2019) in their encore, where Patton\u2019s cry of \u201cYou want it all but you can\u2019t have it\u201d seemed sarcastic and lost on spectators \u2013 some of whom still felt the need throughout to yell \u201cYou fat bastard!\u201d expecting a response from Mike, but only getting reaction from their fellow beer-swilling trolls.<\/p>\n

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But that\u2019s life, and so Dead Cross hammered Camden with a blitzkrieg of \u2018Idiopathic\u2019 and a stirring rendition of \u2018Church Of The Motherfuckers\u2019, before spitting out a rousing version of Dead Kennedy\u2019s \u2018Nazi Punks Fuck Off\u2019 to which some of the veteran punks in attendance seemed to appreciate.<\/p>\n

Throughout, Mike Crain\u2019s guitar and Justin Pearson\u2019s bass were thunderous reminders as to how music can still remain violently fresh in a watered down music society; Lombardo\u2019s drums still reminding us all of what Slayer has missed so much as his wall of sound acted as a more than sturdy rear guard.<\/p>\n

And the grooves remained dark flinching bursts of hostility. \u2018My Perfect Prisoner\u2019 and \u2018Seizure And Desist\u2019 were riddled with manic tension and Patton\u2019s vocal flips and flops, before the hyper \u2018Shillelagh\u2019 teemed rawness and moody flavour upon us with the combo thrashing, cranking and jerking before the sudden advent of a massive yet oh so brief hook lulled more befuddled victims into its grinding lair of malevolence and volatile punk chants.<\/p>\n

\u2018Obedience School\u2019 \u2013 with Patton\u2019s statement of \u201cWe didn\u2019t know we\u2019d be here either\u201d \u2013 summed up the energetic and spontaneous feel of the band\u2019s performance. The frontman pogoed and leered toward the small, sweaty sea of fists, although the unintentional comedic element throughout was still the crowd\u2019s rather confused reaction to songs they either hadn\u2019t heard or were simply unfamiliar with, probably due to not giving the album a chance beyond their limited spectrum.<\/p>\n

Tonight felt somewhat special and frustrating in one hit \u2013 and then they were gone, leaving us to spill out into the humid air of Camden High Street to a stench of stale beer and sweaty Faith No More shirts. Which just about says it all.<\/p>\n

Neil Arnold<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

DEAD CROSS The Underworld, Camden, London, England June 11th, 2018 Mike Patton \u201cDownload was such a drag,\u201d bemoaned the mercurial Mike Patton, now frontman of Californian hardcore-cum-punk ensemble Dead Cross who decided to make a rather impromptu appearance to a small yet not surprisingly sold out venue in the heart of trendy Camden. And with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3662,26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-69964","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dead-cross","category-live-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69964","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69964"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69964\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":69976,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69964\/revisions\/69976"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69964"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69964"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69964"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}