Get Dead or Die Trying is the 4^th album from UK death metal band The Rotted who used to be called Gorerotted on their earlier albums. Having never heard their previous albums and my only exposure to the band being random Metal Hammer articles I approached this album with a fair amount of skepticism. I was expecting some sort of ultra-brutal gore obsessed death metal. What I got wasn’t too far away from that but it was also surprisingly good.

The album opens with Nothing but a Nosebleed which after the shouted intro literally explodes in typical death metal fashion. There is a continuous use of blast beats, the vocals are somewhere between a harsh raw scream and a deep guttural growl and this is playing along expected lines. Then suddenly, the band slow down and hit a groove and things get interesting. The songs are all short, sharp and to the point and the band hit some pretty cool grooves over the course of this album.

There’s a definite death n roll feel to most of the songs on this album. A vibe that reminds me of Entombed’s To Ride, Shoot Straight and Speak the Truth while at the same time having a foot firmly planted in old school death metal. There are bits here and there that remind me of Destruction and Sodom. The album sounds refreshingly old school in tone and execution although the songwriting isn’t particularly old school.

 The band put the whole two vocalist idea to good use with Goreskin handling the deep growls and being the main vocalist of the band and bass player Phil Wilson providing supporting screams. There’s an interesting dynamic at play here that enhances the brutality of these songs.

The band also show that they’re not one trick ponies with A Brief Moment of Regret showing off a slower melodic side to the band, while the tempo changes in The Body Tree are quite impressive. Other stand out tracks includes Kissing You with My Fists, It’s Like There’s A Party in My Mouth (And Everybody’s Been Sick), the ferocious title song and Fear and Loathing in Old London Town.

Get Dead or Die Trying is a pretty impressive death metal album in a year that’s all ready seen its share of awesome death metal releases. Not good enough to get to the top of the heap but pretty damn good all the same.



Label - Metal Blade
Year of Release - 2008