Send More Paramedics has to be one of the best names for a band that has surfaced in some time. Paramedics is exactly what you will need though, because when you first hear this band you are faced with a wall of sound that is akin to a sonic battering on your ears. However, despite this dubious link, there is an even better reason for the bands superb moniker, you see Send More Paramedics are obsessed with zombies. Whether this is a gimmick or not, the bands first full-length release, ‘A Feast For The Fallen’ is essentially an album devoted to all those b-movie horrors.
Send More Paramedics are a blend of hardcore and 80’s thrash metal. As you would expect, like the albums subject matter, the music isn’t pretty. Its fast, its brutal, and it features some high, screaming vocals. Tracks like ‘Zombified’ and ‘Necromancer’ fly past at a hundred miles an hour, both lasting around two minutes, whilst the nicely named ‘Zombie Sweetheart’ is anything but the ballad the title suggests.
The zombie references continue in much the same vein for the rest of the album, with particular mentions going to ‘Pain of being Dead’ and ‘Aim for the head’, both for the song quality and the brilliance of the titles. However, there is one real problem here. Much of the album is very similar, both in theme and content. Whilst the zombie references are fun, they do grate after a while, and a couple of the tracks meld into each other too easily. However, the band make up for this with a very cool bonus audio track, which is well worth a listen for horror fans.
Ultimately ‘A Feast For The Fallen’ is a decent debut album from Send More Paramedics, who prove to be another worthy addition to the In At The Deep End Records stable. The band are strong musically, but just lack a bit of diversity on this release. And as for the zombie theme, well, lets just say some people will like it more than others! It’s definitely good enough and quirky enough to be worth a listen or two.
Mark