Doublegeddon - Geddon Dangerous

Double the Geddon and double the danger.

(Originally submitted to the Metal Archives on February 7th 2024)  

Metal fans don’t really want to admit it, but the genre is tacky at its core. Whether it’s death metal’s comical obsession with viscera and murder, or the fantasy escapades commonly found in power metal, it’s all steeped in an air of -oft unintentional- comedy, Not to mention the visual aesthetics that each genre is defined by. I’ll admit that for a long while I was a little pretentious regarding how seriously I took metal music, but then I learned how to have fun. Which leads us to Doublegeddon’s debut, Geddon Dangerous, whose cover art alone reeks of 80s B-grade sci-fi, further emboldened by the tagline “heavy metal program™”. Had I seen this album a few years back I’d dismiss it as garbage that only perpetuates a stereotype about metal being for nerds. A few years back I was a moron basically.

Geddon Dangerous, for how silly and cheesy it is on an aesthetic and lyrical level, it’s as serious as a heart attack on the musical front. This is distilled, balls-to-the-wall epic heavy metal that does nothing but launch itself forward start to finish. From the moment the delightfully 80s synths of “The Human Experiment” end, Ricky and Randy Geddon pull out all the stops and launch a relentless attack that never quite lets up. The energy is consistently high on cuts like “The Nuclear Winter”, which features one of the most intense choruses on the record, or the roaring riffing that closes “The Scabbard”, not to mention the thrash attack of “Exploderon”. It’s all top-shelf stuff, and the quality is kept consistently high across all the tunes, even the slightly more dramatic ones like “On the Wings of a Dinosaur”, a tune that in spite of its goofy title is arguably one of the more brooding moments here.

All that is further accentuated by a stellar production job, whose brightness and fullness really brings the most out of the music, especially the melodies and leads on tunes like the aforementioned “Wings…” and “Exploderon”, not to mention just how Randy Geddon’s vocals soar over the music on “Witch Castle” and “NecroRomancer”. Even the rhythm section gets its time in the spotlight, whether it’s the unrelenting double bass rhythms found throughout the album, or the fact that the bass actually gets to shine on “The Nuclear Winter”. It’s all so perfectly handled and it really makes the music sound larger than life, thus selling you on the silly fantasies present in the lyrics.

If there is one thing I’d complain about is that the duo is a bit too consistent in their delivery of intense heavy metal, to the point where the 37-minute runtime seems a bit much on repeat listens. Perhaps more detours, whether tonal or stylistic, could go a long way in making the project a bit less uniform, seeing as tracks like “Witch Castle” and “Revenge of the Vampire” get lost in the speed-crazed shuffle. Even then though, that leaves us with 6 tracks that are straight fire, as kids these days say.

Silly as it might sound, I wouldn’t have “gotten” Geddon Dangerous had I not actually matured. Not in the sense that it’s some kind of progressive masterpiece mind you, but in its spirit. The duo pays their dues to heavy metal not only by respecting and indulging in the campiness inherent to the style, but also by actually writing heavy metal for nerds that isn’t limp in its execution. It’s scientific proof that you can write good metal that manages to be funny at the same time, as well as that you can indulge in aesthetics without letting them take precedence over the actual art on display. What I’m trying to say is that if you love metal music you’ll love this, give it a listen already.

Highlights: The Nuclear Winter, The Scabbard, NecroRomancer, Exploderon

Rating: 85%