Much as it is not for me as a skeezy journo type to delineate what the UK's punk hardcore scene does, or does not need, I can certainly say that there's not a single person (ok a few ancient ancrid people with the same sense of humour as a disfigured newt) who won't smile when told about 'Send more paramedics'.
Made from 3 members of 'and none of them knew they were robots', 'Send more paramedics' dress as zombies and drink pints of blood onstage. The band being based on mutual love for Slayer and bad zombie flicks. Recorded in one of the undead's lounges, it's slightly dogged with the usual demo problems of foggy production, yet still sounds pretty impressive.
In Middlesbrough, if you have never visited - you lucky person you - we have a certain culinary delight. It is called a Parmesan (parmo). No not a lump of cheese enounced into a full meal, a Parmesan is a large selection of various meat cuts under a thick mesh of melted cheese. Rather like a slightly more sickening tuna melt. Send more paramedics, being a Leeds based band generally, found that a good slant on this would be not only to sing about Zombies in every song they wrote, but also to incorporate into their live set a good bit of banter about 'Brain Parmos'.
The riffs and huge cheese filled solos shout a very obvious trend of slayer, but also this band sounds very like 'Ringworm', the heavy thumping breakdown beats keep this fast paced comedy rock very accessible and catchy. This is proved no more poignantly than in the song 'Redneck Holiday'. The third track on the demo, begins with a little snippet from the George Romero classic 'Dawn of the dead', with, appropriately, rednecks shooting at a bunch of zombies for sport. This really is comedy hardcore at it's finest, with the resounding powerful chorus of 'Let's flush 'em out, and gun 'em down, This is our redneck holiday'. The band is loud, virulent, and vehement, powerfully funny stuff. Listen out after the end of the tracks, on most copies of this great tape (which you really should hound the band to send you for 50peneth at sendmoreparamedics@hotmail.com) there's a fantastic story of zombies.
Oh yeah, to quote from their live set, (a short break from the hugely lengthy solo pulled off by the lead guitarist)
'IF MUSIC BE THE FOOD OF DEATH, PLAY ON'…
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8Ralph Cowling's Score