Dead Gods/Megadosage Split 12″

Description

Dead Gods, AKA Dead Gods Without Heads, were formed in Blacksburg, VA by Brian Idle Edsel Diederich, Steve Loschi, and Wayne Ciccolo. Maximum Rocknroll called their style ultrafast, thrash, noise. Please review this self-titled side of Dead Gods from a split with Megadosage.

This three-piece band committed itself to pushing speed and power past any limits. They were seeking a way to elevate their musical ideas to the next level. There’s a chaotic blend of noise, thrash, experimental sound, satirical humor, loud distorted guitars and intense rhythms which resolve into a crude order unique only to Dead Gods. 

The music is often described as primal. From a steady kick to a cacophony of drums layered with gobs of bass, lightly frosted with mind-bending guitar, and sprinkled with spoken or shouted-out vocals, there is a semblance of primitiveness in all Dead Gods’ music. The mid-tempo tracks deliver a collage of sound, featuring samples and circular beats, rather than the four-four linear syncopations to which we are accustomed. Then there’s the tracks that have a blistering pace with a nonstop brutal attack.  

Recorded between 1988 and 1990, the quality of this record varies from lo-fi to a well-produced sound. Some of the tracks were recorded on a boom box in Blacksburg, VA, while others were multi-track recorded in Virginia Beach.

Review Dead Gods / Megadosage split LP

Uhhhhh, someone wanna tell us all what rock this beast crawled out from under? My jaw hit the floor about two seconds after the needle hit the groove and DEAD GODS preached “Glory Without a Fight.” Their side of this masterpiece is total VOID-level sonic obliteration, a hardcore band playing way faster, way harder, and with far more intensity than their competency can match. Completely fukkn unhinged from start to finish—a finish that includes two FLIPPER-tinged drug dirges interrupted by a seven-minute radio “interview” that features several tracks from their demo. Featuring a pre-CANDY SNATCHERS Brian Diederich, it’s hard to imagine how (or why) this has remained under wraps for so long…and now I flip the record over for MEGADOSAGE. Appears to be a brilliantly amped-up version of the 1985 Blacksburg Paradise demo that I was today years old when I became cool enough to learn about. Once again, light-speed, manic USHC that should have been distributed to the masses and shamelessly aped a thousand times over by now. You get the sense that this is a band who could have turned to the dark (metal) side had they stayed in the game, but thankfully we’re left with this bastard fusion, ADRENALIN OD/VOID hybrid that makes my hair stand on end. What’s left of it. All hail My Weed for conjuring this into existence.

Reviewer: Robert Collins / Label: My Weed Records / Issue: MRR #501 • February 2025