REVIEW: Dealey Plaza – The Masonic Diaries [2013]
Band: Dealey Plaza
Album: The Masonic Diaries
Hey kids, do you like upbeat music with a positive vibe to it? Happy-go-lucky music about the sunshine and not having a care in the world? WELL TOO FUCKING BAD, because The Masonic Diaries has none of that bullshit, instead this behemoth of an album brings you death, violence and a bottomless pit of anger!
The young Floridian band Dealey Plaza are all about one thing: filthy fucking music that makes you want to rip someones spine out through his or hers anus. If you are familiar with the self titled EP released earlier this year you know what to expect, for the people that are new to this band I have just one word of warning: before listening to this debut full length you would be wise to lose your pants and tape down your socks because of excessive liquid defacation. Like an unsuspecting spark coming too close to gasoline the music style of Dealey Plaza ignites without warning, alternating between vicious death metal riffing to unrelenting deathcore grooves in the blink of an eye. The hard hitting instrumentals joined by two vocalists that both spit hate and malice from their throats create a catalyst for total annihilation that keeps your feet glued to the floor, regardless of the fact that the rest of your body is disintegrated into oblivion because of the musical onslaught. The lyrical concept isn’t anything truly new or groundbreaking but it shouldn’t just be ignored because of that; it speaks about the corruption of everything that is wrong with humanity, maybe if more people stopped taking shit for granted and started opening their eyes to the truth bands wouldn’t be forced to write about it. The musical execution itself makes The Masonic Diaries tower above the majority of similar musical efforts, even when measured against genre heavyweights such as King Conquer or Molotov Solution.
It’s no secret that Infant Annihilator’s Dan Watson is attracted to heavy music like a fat kid is drawn to cake and cookies, thus it should come as no surprise that he is featured on this album, the result of that is Eight Forty Six, which has three beasts screaming their fucking lungs out. If I did not know any better I would say that Satan himself has multiplied himself and started a metal band, just because he could. Songs such as The Reign and The Eye were also on the EP but have been re-recorded and boosted with 200% more awesomeness on this new release; if you compare the two versions you can clearly hear a muffled and unfocused sound compared to the new productions, of course this awesome sound is also present in all of the other songs.
Dealey Plaza is a self-made band that deserves WAY more attention than they are getting at the moment, especially with this grand release they have proven themselves to surpass and transcend the mass-produced mediocre bands that make similar music. I could go on and on giving praise to The Masonic Diaries but at this point you should feel compelled to pick this motherfucker up and jam the fuck out of it! I dare you to find ONE song that sucks on this, all tracks are performed which such amounts of energy and emotion that they won’t lose their edge, giving great replayability to this 40 minute inferno of rage. The versatile fusion of death metal, deathcore and hardcore allows for a fanbase that likes heavy music in general and I hope we will see more music like this spawning from the depths of Southwest Florida in the near future.
Rating: 9.5/10
For fans of: King Conquer, Molotov Solution, Martyr Defiled, Legion, Immoralist
