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Deadlock
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Earth.Revolt
Lifeforce Records
Release: 6/28/2005
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Rated:
Review by:
Sid Notsil
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Deadlock is a recently formed German black metal band.
This album, Earth.Revolt, is their most
ambitious, most polished effort yet. Black metal, while
having been around in Germany for quite a while now, is just
starting to pick up steam here in the States. If Deadlock
plays their cards right, they stand to be the best black metal
band around since At The Gates.
Deadlock's Earth.Revolt is easily the best black
metal album I've heard in years. Yes, including the recently
released album, Nymphetamine, from the
anti-successful (so much success it actually hurts the
popularity with the original fan base) Cradle of
Filth.
There are a few factors that take this album from merely
'okay' to great. It starts with a full string prelude on theme
to the fantastic flagship song, "10,000 Generations in Blood,"
that carries on for eight minutes without dropping the ball.
The drummer's double-bass work is charged full of passion,
and the post-production mixer didn't over-blow it like so
many other bands do. Included in the album is their take on
a "Requiem for the Dead." Throughout the album is a woman
vocalist who really adds good contrasting power, similar to
the records of From Autumn To Ashes.
There exists, unfortunately, one notable flaw in all of this
fantastic work. All of the songs are in English. What language
they should be singing in works out to be a somewhat
complicated marketing matter. Some people...marketers I
suppose, believe in order to increase accessibility to an
audience, the band should speak the language of the land. I
believe this couldn't be any further from the truth. Singing in
a different tongue brings with it all the mystery and foreign
power that would be lost otherwise if the languages
matched. One might argue they are using that very same
tactic to appeal to German crowds. However, the stateside
audience is the prize coveted by most record labels, and
their Web site is in English, suggesting they are actively
trying to grab Americans into the fold.
I think this band will become only better if they make the
switch to songs in German. If you don't believe me, listen to
the last song on the album, "Harmonic," and you tell me the
writing hasn't suffered from translation. I'll guarantee you
that song will sound a thousand times more interesting to
Americans if sung in German. They don't even have to
change the sub-par writing. This is the exact principle behind
Rammstein's runaway success. |
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