The Rotted - Get Dead or Die Trying Review

Posted by Jesse Coy on 08.10.2008

Why has the Rotted (formerly Gorerotted) dropped the gore? Is there such a thing as punk death metal? Which great recent horror movie sees its theme covered on this release? Find out these answers and more…

The Rotted
Get Dead or Die Trying
July 2008
Metal Blade Records

I’m sure everyone out there has had the experience of hearing or reading about an album described in some way that psyched you up, or had an expectation based off a short spurt of info that did the same thing. Thus was the case for me here with the Rotted, seeing words like “punk” and “death metal” and “hybrid” batted about and combined, and also catching the notice of band members formerly being from such acts as… well, Christian Death was the one act I focused on, having very recently delved deeper into their catalogue and loving what I’ve heard (the other two bands included Cradle of Filth and Scream Daemon).

I’m selective about what death metal I sample for the simple reason that I think it’s such an extreme genre that in general, much of it has all been done before. So I need something really unique to grab me via this genre. I’m quite familiar with the pioneers of the genre, and think in many ways they hit most of the points where you need to go. Yet in the past year and a half, for every dozen or so tired rehashes of the genre (and many of these bands were quite technically sound), I’ve encountered one innovative rethinking or reworking of the death metal genre.

Because I was expecting something different, I will say that on first listen to the Rotted’s Get Dead or Die Trying, I was a bit disappointed. But then I listened to it again, and a few more times, and then even a few more times. So here’s the listening chronicle.

1st listen- see the disappointed explanation above.

2nd and 3rd listens- I began to hear more elements that I’d maybe overlooked because of my expectations. For sure, there was one tune I recognized, which was the closing instrumental, “28 Days Later.” That’s right, the Rotted remade that excellent zombie movie’s memorable theme. It’s nicely balanced with the mellow instrumental that lies dead center on the album, “A Brief Moment of Regret.”

By the end of the third listen, I started thinking two thoughts. First, there seemed to be a sort of subtle assemblage or homage to some of the pioneering death metal or grindcore acts, just in bits and pieces, incorporated into the songs… I heard some of the trademark high end, quivering Carcass guitar sound in one tune or the distinctive double drum machine gunning of early Morbid Angel in another song. There was also the occasional crunchy texture of early Entombed.

Speaking of which, one of my favorite death metal releases is Entombed’s Wolverine Blues, which divided that band’s fan base, and sort of carved a death ‘n’ roll niche for the band. There’s some element of that here with the Rotted, and I couldn’t help thinking at that point that if this came out eight or ten years ago, it’d be a classic.

4th and 5th listens- some Gorerotted fans out there may be yelling… “why isn’t he saying they used to be Gorerotted?!” First, I have no releases by Gorerotted. Second, based off a description of the band provided, I’d be less interested in them anyway. They changed to the Rotted to get away from the whole notion of being pigeon-holed in writing strictly death metal gore lyrics. To respect the Gorerotted fans, and to also maybe get new fans, they changed their name to the Rotted.

Which brings me to my next few listens. I started looking even closer at the lyrics and listening to the interesting bits in the different songs that really stood out. First, if you read through the lyrics, this does not sound like death metal lyrics. There’s your hybrid with punk… which is the subject matter of the songs.

You have the opener, “Nothing But a Nosebleed,” which nicely pokes fun at the musicians’ grandiose plans… (“we’re gonna form a million bands… we’ll make this place a paradise, but when it all comes crashing down, it’s nothing but a nosebleed”) and the following track, “The Howling.” That one nicely references a couple werewolf movies, but is really just about a bloke who gets out of control at night, a drinking madman, waking naked in Hyde Park from time to time. The “fucking howling!” scream at the very en of the song is reminiscent to me of Pantera’s “fucking hostile!”



And maybe that’s another point where the hybrid notion continues. There are some really intense metal grooves (ala Pantera), and also hardcore grooves (ala early Pro-Pain), and also thrash grooves… but just when yo get too comfortable there, you’re whipped back musically into a grindcore/death metal intensity. Forget about the first listen or two… “Kissing You With My Fists” has a great structure, fluctuating between grindcore and metal groove. “Angel of Meth” has an awesome old school thrash guitar solo.

I see the light… I see the hybrid. I think I’ve become Rotted.

The 411: With each listen, my rating continued to go up more and more, and then a little more. This is a good starting point for the band. I’d be very interested to see them freeing themselves up even more with future releases, while still retaining the core of the genre. Maybe a punk death metal act?

Final Score:  8.5   [ Very Good ]