Deadsmoke-Deadsmoke

With the release of this their first full length album, Italy’s Deadsmoke are looking to make a huge noise in the doom/sludge world. But with any first release there are bound to be some pitfalls.

 Deadsmoke opens with the slow power house monster of Branches of Evil. A song that in all honesty, gets going pretty quickly. Being that Deadsmoke are, for the most part, an instrumental band their lack of hooks actually doesn’t do them a disservice, and the pounding ever present riffs of Braches of Evil are testament to that.

This trend continues into the next track Eyes of the Blind Man, where the bass drum does a great job of accenting the slow, almost droning, riff. There are markedly more vocals in this track, although they are used to a more atmospheric effect. They fit the song to some extent, but also feel unnecessarily tacked on at the same time, like they don’t really add all that much to the track as a whole.

If you aren’t a huge doom fan you may find this album to be a little samey, with third track Liar Behind Me treading very much the same path as the previous two. I have to say that at this point in Deadsmoke even I was thinking that it needed to be changed up, in order for it to not stagnate in the same sound.

While the intro of Tornado may sound Triptykon-esque (meaning same old, same old for the album so far) it morphs into what I believe is the strongest song on Deadsmoke when it picks up the pace. When the track really gets going it has the intensity of a slower Slayer song-say around the God Hates us all-period. This is however only a small part of the track but it is quite a refreshing change of pace.

The final track Night of the Vipers really adds nothing new to the table and ambles around in a dirge of riffs, that while dissonant and quite intriguing, really goes nowhere for nearly seven minutes. Not the best song to end on but hey you gotta end somehow.

Not a bad album. Not a world changing one either in all fairness. It’s a solid effort from Deadsmoke that pays off when they change their style after you have become accustomed to the slower pace, unfortunately this happens very few times. Drone/heavy doom fans should enjoy Deadsmoke.

Deadsmoke was released on March 25^th, 2016 via Heavy Psych Sounds

Favourite Track:

Tornado

Deadsmoke tack listing:

1. Branches of Evil
2. Eye of the Blind Man
3. Liar Behind Me
4. Tornado
5. Night of the Vipers

Deadsmoke are:

Gianmaria – Bass

Matteo – Guitar

Maurice – Drums