After a storming headline set at Worcester Music Festival, it’s good to have a follow up from Kick the Clown in their bracing style. The band are as tight as a pair of drainpipe jeans on this song, that rips along like with all the tightness and precision of Metallica playing a hardcore cover. As always with Kick The Clown, they’ve a point to make and a wit and an imagination to do so.
This song seems to be suggesting that the sensible solution to poverty is to eat the cold uncaring overlords that keep society in its shape. Who are the “Living Dead” of the title – the hungry zombies or the heartless overlords? You decide… “Burn it down and paint it red / You are of the living dead / A thousand hungry mouths to feed / You don’t get enough to eat.” Or it might just be a funny story about zombies…
The chorus tumbles forward in a guitar riff that’s a blur of chords, like the guitarist has had three pints and tripped over his guitar lead on his way out of the practice room to go to the toilet. This energy gives momentum and drive to the band’s message. The rhythm guitars drop away to reveal the melodic solo – which comes as a welcome bit of relief from all that intensity. The solo almost tips into an Arabic scale at the end, giving a nice change from all that crunch.
The end result of all this is the kind of song that makes you inhale so sharply that your top lip inadvertently climbs above your gritted teeth. Nice. One for the Hallowe’en playlist, I think.
By: Eastside Jimmy