Casket Architects – Dance On the Death Nerve Review


Website: Casket Architects

The Inside Pulse:
New York’s Casket Architects claim to have defined a new genre all their own: “sci-fi deth rock.” From this side of the fence, it sounds a lot like punk/screamo with a heaping dose of Black Sabbath and the occasional oddball sequencer magic. Perhaps the invented genre definition is fitting.

Running less than a mighty eighteen minutes, the twelve songs encompassing Dance on the Death Nerve waste no time with trying to gloss things over, jumping right in to the meat and potatoes of the music. It’s very efficient.

Positives: There are some fabulously catchy moments peppered throughout Dance on the Death Nerve. Namesake track “Casket Architecture” is probably the best example of what they’re trying to accomplish; other tracks like “Deftwitch” and “Observer” are just plain catchy. There’s really nothing about the entire album that isn’t fun. Given the unique touches they add to the generic world of today’s punk scene, it’s the quirks that make them memorable.

Negatives: Eighteen minutes. Yeah, these guys could stand to flesh out their songs a bit more, never mind that there’s more than one short instrumental. So many good ideas are over just as soon as they began. But maybe small doses of Casket Architects are better than an avalanche. Oh, and the tail end of “Behold… The Outro,” ending the disc with some sort of noise not unlike blowing into a microphone. Odd and unpleasant.

Cross-breed: Helmet gone screamo. Rancid spending too much time with Planet Caravan.

Reason To Buy: You’re a punk rocker who’s looking for something that doesn’t sound as cookie-cutter as everything else circulating.