Super groups can be the cause of concern or exuberant excitement. The first thing that comes to mind is the Million Dollar Quartet. Albeit an impromptu jam session (as was Elvis Presley’s session with The Beatles), it’s interesting to see formative players come together to crush a genre together. Though apparently that Presley and Beatles session was a bit awkward (source: Jerry Hopkins’ Elvis: The Biography), I can say that Deny the Cross is anything but.
If you’re familiar with the powerviolence genre, then you were probably on this band long ago when bits of the album started surfacing. Or maybe you’re too underground and song premiers are for sell outs. I joke…sort of (I always have crosshairs on the elitists), but if you’re not acclimated with the genre, you’ll notice it’s largely comprised of disjointed madness; breakdowns and blast beats with a grindcore/hardcore-punk attitude. And that’s exactly what Alpha Ghoul does.
The problem and, perhaps weird glory, of the powerviolence genre is one’s ability to stand out. And for a genre that’s incredibly inaccessible, Deny the Cross actually manage to crack the door just a bit for casual listeners, or those that just aren’t familiar with the genre. And you know what? The opener “Heart Like Siberia” will actually throw a lot of people off in its brief minute span and give people who need it that small window in. Hell, you’d be forgiven for thinking that a small chunk of “Bacteria Tribute” is still track one. But it’s not. The first track sets the lure. It lets you think it’s going to be another grind-y/punky project. And yeah, it is. But once the second track kicks into gear Deny the Cross drop that barrier of safety and come at the listener(s) with gardening shears a la The Burning.
Alpha Ghoul continues its decent into casual skull crushing. And the thing you’ll learn quickly is that Deny the Cross are here to destroy. There’s little room for recovery, though if you’re going to find any it’ll be in “Gutter Kiss”, one of the longer songs (less than 90 seconds), and even then it’s blasting by the end. The album does play the strongest to the punk side though. Songs like the very grind-y “The Prayer Position” will argue with this point, but it remains.
Where I found myself most surprised though was in the drum and bass work. Dave Witte (Municipal Waste, Discordance Axis) surprisingly hasn’t drummed for Lack of Interest but if he had to he could fucking pull it off. But it’s Ramon Salcido (Agents of Satan, Plutocracy) that really blew me away. Despite the mix not favoring his instrument enough, his playing is stellar and the glue that holds everything together. But that’s not to say that the guitar assault of Dan Lactose (Spazz) or the strongly Kevin Sharpe performance of Carlos Ramierz (Black Army Jacket) holds the album back in anyway.
I’ll be honest though. The first few spins I gave to Alpha Ghoul didn’t do much for me. Maybe it was my mood or my headphones just didn’t have enough Salcido in them, but the aggressions slowly sunk in. I’m on my tenth listen in a row as I write this and I’m going to blow out my speakers at this rate. Though when it comes to supergroups, it’s difficult at this point to see how they stack up against the mighty Low Threat Profile. In that instance, time will tell. Though I can say this much: the band has a sense of humor on the powerviolence scene and its history. Don’t believe me? Does “Blast Pound Strafe Stab Kill” sound like a familiar title? Oh and Mark McCoy did the album artwork. Go make your joke about emo semen. For now, Deny the Cross is friggin' bestial, and one of the alphas amongst the powerviolence crowd.
Score: 8/10
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