Death
N.E.W.
Release Date: Apr 21, 2015
Genre(s): Pop/Rock
Record label: Tryangle
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Album Review: N.E.W. by Death
Fairly Good, Based on 8 Critics
Based on rating 7/10
Death lives! David, Dannis, and Bobby Hackney's singular brand of scorching, '70s Detroit proto-punk power trio rock was all but unheard save for a few handfuls of Motor City fans and record collectors. Their first seven singles were compiled by Drag City and issued as For the Whole World to See. Two subsequent collections (Spiritual-Mental-Physical in 2011 and III in 2013), as well as a documentary film entitled A Band Called Death and a subsequent tour (with new guitarist Bobbie Duncan replacing the deceased David) drew massive attention.
Based on rating B-
Before punk became cool, Detroit trio Death was busy building a steady collection of proto-punk songs. Few knew about the band when they were still around, but once a rare copy of their self-financed 45 surfaced, the internet worked its magic. Collectors began grabbing at copies, the documentary A Band Called Death was released in 2013, and everyone from Henry Rollins to Elijah Wood was filmed talking about the band’s importance.
Based on rating 6.3/10
A new Death album in 2015 is an odd thing to comprehend. The trio of brothers—Bobby, Dannis, and David Hackney—formed in Detroit in the 1970s, offering loud, fast, and heavy rock'n'roll inspired by bands like the Who and Alice Cooper. Occasionally, they ebbed toward more introspective spiritual music, but their legacy lies in their status as a lost proto-punk band: They came close to breaking through—the famous story is that Clive Davis said he’d sign them if they changed their name.
Based on rating 3/5
Back in the Seventies, these badass Detroit brothers were so punk-rock, they rejected a deal with Clive Davis on principle. Now reunited after several decades of obscurity, with new guitarist Bobbie Duncan replacing the late David Hackney, they've summoned forth an album of new material from the abyss: whiplash-fast songs as Spartan in construction and as bracing in attack as their 40-years-young visionary predecessors. They're not nearly as scathing on the state of the nation, though: This century's Death have swapped out bad tidings for good vibrations.
Based on rating 3/5
Life could have been very different for Death. After subsidising a rip-roarin’ 1974 demo for the Detroit proto-punk trio, Arista desperately wanted to sign them – on the proviso they change their name. The group stubbornly refused; Arista withdrew their offer and Death subsequently released just a lone, limited edition 45 (1976’s Keep On Knocking) before relocating to Vermont and temporarily reinventing themselves as gospel-rockers The 4th Movement in the early 80s.
Based on rating 4/10
Over the past few years, the remarkable story of Death has been widely circulated among fans of underground rock and punk. After inventing punk rock in some sort of parallel universe, back in 1975, Bobby and Dannis Hackney enlisted their Lambsbread band mate, Bobbie Duncan (replacing their deceased brother, David, on guitar), to record N. E.
Opinion: Fairly Good
We’ve been wondering for years if Detroit’s resurrected power trio Death (not to be confused with Florida’s eponymous pioneering death metal band) would ever release new music, instead of relying on the archival recordings that make up its previous three records. Lo and behold, the band has done exactly that: N.E.W. is indeed brand new, the band’s first recording with guitarist Bobbie Duncan replacing the late David Hackney.
Opinion: Fairly Good
Drag City and Netflix revived the career of Detroit proto-punks Death by respectively releasing their 1975 demos and making widely available the 2012 documentary A Band Called Death, which told the brothers' formidably moving story pre- and post-bandleader David Hackney's death. The trio hit on a raw, emotional, gritty new sound, but success failed to materialize until some 40 years later. N.E.W.
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