Tuesday 10 May 2016

Deadsmoke - "Deadsmoke" (Album Review)

By: Hunter Young

Album Type: Full Length
Date Released: 25/03/2016
Label: Heavy Psych Sounds


With a metal buzz bordering upon scuzz, Deadsmoke comes crashing down like the heavens themselves have cracked, riffing with almost metronomic precision to let their sound boom down your ear canals.  This record is guaranteed to make your neighbors hate you.

“Deadsmoke” CD//DD//LP track listing:

1). Branches of Evil
2). Eyes of the Blind Man
3). Liar Behind Me
4). Tornado
5). Night of the Viper

The Review:

Want doom loud, vicious, and faster than a Saturnalian funeral march? That's oddly specific of you to ask... But the self-titled “Deadsmoke” by, well, Deadsmoke comes right out of the ethereal haze to honor your request.

With a metal buzz bordering upon scuzz, Deadsmoke comes crashing down like the heavens themselves have cracked, riffing with almost metronomic precision to let their sound boom down your ear canals. It's very rudimentary metal, with bludgeoning rhythmic strumming holding your sway as they interject buzzing and phasing, sometimes even bends!, to warp the soul in time with their maddening doomentia. And that's just track 1, “Branches of Evil”.

Deadsmoke have taken their cue and sound from the mongers of fuzzdom, Electric Wizard, so that’s going to tell you much about this group. It's not unpleasant, but it's not heavier either. It's pretty damn solid, playing dark, over driven, and guaranteed to make your neighbors hate you. 5 songs long, nothing under 4:41, and monstrously thudding out of even the tiny speakers from whence it bides me, Deadsmoke have done well with a very well trodden path. Notably, track 2, “Eyes of the Blind Man”, balances the chanting, drawn out vocals with vehement shouts, over their torturous slow playing, making for an almost zen like feel to the track. It's an album for those that worship at the altar of true doom, filled with nothing and yet coarse against the skin as you float through it (“Tornado”, #4,, try it with the lights off and imagine).

Deadsmoke is for the true doomer, those that travel where music takes its own odd turns, and those on the journey,  where they never find the end. It will encapsulate a familiar space for the seasoned listener, resonating with their own dark harmonies and allowing expanse within the confines of their reality. Have plenty of whatever allows you to walk your path and imbibe generously as Deadsmoke rolls you up and lights the cosmos up with your cherry glow.

Deadsmoke” is available here



Band info: bandcamp || facebook