Age of Evil is an interesting metal band. They consist of two sets of teenage brothers, Jeremy (vocals/rhythm guitar) and Jacob Goldberg (bass), and Jordan (lead guitar) and Garrett Ziff (drums). They also seem to be students of the metal that people were playing before they even born.
Get Dead is a follow up EP to their debut album Living a Sick Dream, which was released in 2007. It contains a couple of new originals, a couple of covers, and a couple of live versions of tracks found on their debut.
What I really like about this EP is that it shows a nice classic metal sound (“Eye for an Eye”) without mocking, like bands like Wolfmother or the Darkness (who are great in their own way of course, but you know what I mean) tend to do, as well as a modern metal (“Get Dead”). The original tracks here are reminiscent of bands like Avenged Sevenfold, Megadeth, Metallica, and Iron Maiden.
One of the issues for me on Get Dead is the cover songs though. They are a bit of a double-edged sword. Both “Slave to the Grind” (Skid Row) and “The Hellion/Electric Eye” (Judas Priest) are great metal songs, but it’s easier to point out what you don’t like about AOE because of this. Personally, I am a big Skid Row fan, and before looking at the track list I heard the song starting and identified it pretty quickly. It doesn’t take long to notice that Jeremy Goldberg is not Sebastian Bach, but of course very few vocalists were. This is fine of course, Goldberg’s vocals remind me a bit more of Dave Mustaine or M. Shadows depending on the song. I think they do a better job with the second cover, but still, you’re fighting a losing battle against such a classic.
Overall, Get Dead is a good EP. The new songs rock pretty hard. I really enjoyed the guitar playing from Jordan Ziff, it brings me back to the solos I would crank repeatedly on my Walkman back in the 80s. Lyrically the songs are as wicked as you’d expect from a band of this name…on an album of this title, so they aren’t for everybody. At times the drums seem a bit overpowering, but I think their recordings will improve with experience for this young band. All in all, Age of Evil certainly shows that metal still has a future on Get Dead.
Kevin Kozel-MuzikReviews.com Staff
January 28, 2010
