Anyone who has been into death metal at all during the past forty years has no doubt had an encounter with Deceased, one of the longest-running death metal bands around. King Fowley has seen it all in his time at the helm of the band, steering them through the shredding chaos of the early days and tape trading clear through to today's infinitely connected world of websites, streaming, blogs, vlogs, podcasts, and myriad other sources of information. While the world has changed immensely in the past five decades, King and company have always stayed true to themselves and to their metallic aims, even if it meant changing stylistically, and because of this truth, we're presented with the wonderful and diverse 2CD set, March of the Cadavers - 40 Years of Death Metal From the Grave.
With nearly forty years of releases, Hells Headbangers had quite the task at hand compiling this compilation. Smartly, they chose at least one track from every release and line up to give fans the most complete overall package. In addition, they included two covers (Black Sabbath's "Die Young" and Venom's "Lady Lust"), two new tracks ("Dusted" and "Cure for the Grieving Widow"), and re-recorded versions of two songs from their first demo ("March of the Cadavers" and "Sick Thrash"). This whopper is twenty six thrashing tracks coming in at nearly two and a half hours of Deceased goodness. March of the Cadavers' overview of King and crew's legendary run in the genre allows fans to get a quick glimpse at their catalog (relatively speaking) and track how their sound and style changed over time. From the heavy, dark, thrashing madness of "Fading Survival" (from Luck of the Corpse) to their more melodic and refined new works with "Dusted" and "Cure for the Grieving Widow," we are treated to the highlights and given a wonderful recap that is not only insightful, but fun to shred along to. While I personally wasn't exposed to Deceased until 1995's compilation Death ...Is Just The Beginning III (featuring "Creek of the Dead" from The Blueprints for Madness, represented on this release by "Morbid Shape In Black" and "The Triangle"), I made sure to check that and the following album out (Fearless Undead Machines, represented here with "The Silent Creature" and "Fearless Undead Machines"). Not all of Deceased's tracks may have worked for teenage me, but looking back at their catalog now, I definitely have a better appreciation for their songwriting and their ability to stay true to their vision. Reviewing last year's Children of the Morgue brought me to a nice place where I could see my own musical taste's evolution through the ever growing catalog of King Fowley and Deceased.
Highly enjoyable and very thorough, March of the Cadavers is a high energy review of an important and long running death metal stalwart. For those unfamiliar with Deceased extensive discography, this compilation gives a great overview of their releases and shows their progression over the past five decades. Deceased may not be the death metal band that I would recommend to many, but for those that love a bit more theatrics, flourish, and storytelling in their metal, there's a lot of wonderful Deceased to be had. Hells Headbangers' retrospective is a great release for fans new, old, or anyone looking to get a nice A to Z of a classic band.
