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Well, my speakers sure have been full of unexpected surprises in recent weeks.  I had read a couple of interviews with The Rotted, where it was mentioned that it was in fact the new name for Gorerotted, to reflect a change in musical direction.  Either way, not being a fan of gore-grind, I wasn't expecting much from this album since I thought it couldn't be all that different.  Silly me.  Get Dead or Die Trying might have its lyrical moments of gore, but musically this is nothing like the gore-grind that these guys used to play (the kind of stuff that sounds all the same to my hears.)  This album here is filled with rather varied metal.  Death/Grind, plain mid-paced Death Metal, some hints of Melodic Death Metal, and a tame semi-technical Death Metal à la God Dethroned can all be heard on this release, along with a few passages reminiscent of mid-80s Bay Area Thrash - think Megadeth and even a bit of the darker Metal Church stuff.  The band even throws in a few very quiet, more or less atmospheric passages than are purely and simply entrancing.  Bass freaks will particularly appreciate the few moments where the bass does the honours, and more than beautifully so — get your "air-bass" ready.  The closer, "28 Days Later", is a horror/suspense style of instrumental that fits its title like a glove, but also sticks out by not sounding like extreme metal at all - this could fit on a Heavy Metal album.  It is also the longest track here, clocking in at nearly 7 minutes, almost 3 minutes longer than the next longest track on the album.

The most consistent thing here are the vocals, which don't vary nearly as much as the music but somehow manage to feel at home no matter the style being played at the moment.  Harsh Death Metal growls that sometimes border on the screechy, borrowing a little from Black Metal Vocals 101.  The music is quite refined as far as extreme metal goes, all the more evident thanks to the good production.  I've never heard much of Gorerotted, so I don't know if these guys were ever as tight as on this album, but here everything sounds right in its place, whether it's the slow instrumental or the more chaotic, fast-paced numbers.  The Rotted have produced here an excellent slab of Death Metal with a higher than usual dose of melody, most songs serving a platter of dark-sounding melodic passages that greatly enhance the listening experience, and a very nice surprise for those who like me might have expected a neverending barrage of blast beats and same-sounding guitars. One might wish it were a little longer, but then again I'd rather get 38 minutes or top quality material than 50 with a couple of fillers.  Get Dead Or Die Trying is one of the best Death Metal albums I've heard so far this year.  If you're looking for something a little different in extreme metal, you can hardly go wrong with this one.