Customer Reviews

From the Promised Land

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Play Dead was an excellent british band that flourished in the 80s indie/post-punk/gothic rock areas..... with a number of solid releases.

From the Promised Land is perhaps their best, and this is an excellent version of it: remastered, in original track-order, and packed with b-sides and remixes.

Buy this and realize that all that mall-rock metal that kids are calling "goth" these days is nothing but commercial "emo" garbage.

Play Dead are one of the most under-rated bands of the 80's and this is their finest work. I hesitate to call them a goth band, their appeal should be far wider than that, but if you like Killing Joke or The Sisters of Mercy then you are sure to like this. What I enjoy about this album in particular is the bass work - it drives most of the songs and is very funky on a lot of tracks. The guitar is as sharp as broken glass and the pummeling drums drive it forward like a freight-train. The distinctive, almost wailing vocals top it all off to perfection. Pleasureland is one of my all-time favourite songs yet here it fails to stand-out much from the excellent pieces around it. John Fryer's production is almost flawless.
This CD features the full album, followed by a fairly comprehensive set of bonus tracks from the era. These tracks lend more variety to this release, with the synth-bass driven Conspiracy and Sacrosanct, which points the way to the band's next release [Company of Justice - also brilliant].