DEAD MECHANICAL – ‘A Great Lie”
EP (Sex Cells Records)
Dead Mechanical are the kind of enigma band
who take a series of important life fables
and personal subject matters and deploy them
in a style relevant to “the kids”:
lyrical poetry is growled over a biting, punked
up wall of dirge. If there’s such a
thing as serious fun (or “fun serious”
- to each their own), there’s a veritable
chance that this band is here to shape the
future of that very oxymoron.
“A Great Lie” takes its influence
from a number of places. An instant comparison
can easily be made to the likes of Jawbreaker
and Crimpshrine for most aspects of the EP
– the slow, build-up chug-chuggering
of the guitars, while an obvious tribute to
the crustier side of punk – the vocals
scream “first four years Black Flag!”
and sometimes the deliberately underwhelming
vocal style of Bob Mould is snuck in with
ever such subtlety. However, Dead Mechnical
are too important in my mind to accuse of
being too hung up on the past, simply for
the fact that they possess the capacity to
take these influences and mold something fresh
and original. Sure, the title track sounds
suspiciously like Blake Schwarzenbach could
be behind the deep and cryptic master wording
of “nothing tells like a great lie,
nothing ends like a good time…,”
but their real genius lies in songs such as
“Sidewalk,” where the band place
aside their influences and create something
original and unique by their own rules. Wild,
out of control strumming makes way for a barrage
of brain-meltingly addictive backing vocals.
And what’s so brilliant about the sheer
talent on this EP is that it’s actually
listenable from the get-go to the final fade-out
(no jokes, please, Pop Punk Bored), which
thus proves to the boring old Haters that
punk is in fact one of the most progressive
forms of rock out there, and that actually
the genre is still in its very infancy.
Dead Mechanical are an homage to all those
classic pioneering bands, but something a
hell of a lot more. Now I need something more
substantial by these guys; I’m going
to look out for a new full length. –
Dick Nothing
CD Reviews 
