Review by Felix on January 25, 2020.

The more or less well-known Dr. Living Dead! from Sweden threw their second full-length on the market in 2012. No reviews so far? Strange. Anyway, Radioactive Intervention belongs to the works that follow a pretty straight and compact ideal. I do not know how "funny" their previous outputs had been. Song titles of the demo and / or the debut such as "Kindergarten Cop" or "Kerry Burger King" point into a very dubious direction. But the here reviewed album, which is equipped with a slightly flat yet solid production, is free from useless stuff. Dr. Living Dead! keep an eye on musical directness while being not interested in telling stupid jokes. The result is a vigorous, resilient album, but no outstanding classic that must have a special place in a record collection.

The twelve tunes do not contain a single gram of fat. Just like a torpedo, they choose the shortest connection between their spiritual fathers and their aim, the metal-affine audience. There is no place for egocentric excesses, the lean songs attack frontally. Breaks are almost unknown; tempo changes are solely included in order to increase the dynamic. A certain uniformity of the tracks cannot be denied. The lead vocalist tries to fight against this tinge of monotony. His casual or even thoughtful performances on "Signs from the Other Side", "Mental Warzone" or "Hiding Inside of Me" differ from his further contributions. But generally speaking, his voice also lacks variety. That's no big deal, because his style fits the approach of the instrumentalists very well. A voice that spans several octaves is not necessary when it comes to thrash metal with trace elements of crossover and punk. (Needless to add that the background shouts also rely on a one-tone-approach, but they emphasize the features in a clever manner.)

I don't think that it makes sense to discuss about highlights of this full-length. I prefer the songs with a pretty currish vibrancy, for example "You're Lost" or "Timeless". Incidentally, the latter shines with its quite catchy chorus as well. Yet there are no significant quality differences between the individual tracks. Nobody needs to push the skip button, because any search for throwaway tracks will not be crowned with success and nothing hurts the flow of the album. Acoustic intros, atmospheric keyboards sections or movie samples are completely missing. Instead, the band has forged many great riffs, slightly interchangeable, but great. The guys cannot be blamed for a soulless or non-authentic work. Radioactive Intervention is not spectacular, but it sounds as if its songs come straight from the heart and that's the way how it should be. Moreover, the average velocity satisfies my requirements and the level of aggression also falls within the acceptable range. Long story short: fans of Slayer, Nuclear Assault or even Suicidal Tendencies and comparable formations can buy this work and most of them will not regret it.

Rating: 7.8 out of 10