Deadsea
Deadsea Chrome Leaf Records

by Matthew Hoffman
Staff Writer

Comments: Deadsea formed in 2002 when Adam Smith decided to fuse metal, doom and free music. This metal mutation is very unique and very fun to listen to. They lie within no genre and utilize experimental rock, punk, jazz improvisation, death and progressive metal into a sweet concoction to the eardrums.

The band they are the most similar to would have to be Mastodon (whom they have opened for) but that’s only a 12% resemblance. The other 88% of their style is a combo of technical death metal tones one minute, stoner psychedelic rock the next without ever missing a beat.

Moments of brilliant musicianship abound on this self titled ull length album, the bands second. That instrumentation occurs as blasting clean guitar leads, outstanding drum lines and sick ass bass beats.

When you first put it in you wonder “WTF is this?” but if you give it a chance it is both sweet and ferocious.

Take cut number three “Killing Faith (Crying Death)” here you have a high toned drum line that is simply outstanding. Smith delivers his vocals here ala James Hetfield in 1983 one second and Chuck Schuldiner (R.I.P) a minute later. The drones of the death metal riffs are excellent in one part and then the doom metal licks carry the load later in the song.

Even the 73-second raid to the senses of pure metal in “Assualt” is cool in its simplistic straightforwardness.

They have odd time signatures weird stops and starts and lots of creativity like on “Vampyre’s Kiss.” Here the song virtually stops and then a cool ass lead is played by Smith in an almost ‘80s metal ballad style, until the music vaults back into the death metal abyss. Here again the drumming is exceptional as Jeremy Spears lights up the proceedings.

The last two songs on the album “Frozen Rivers” and “The Morning Frost” are long enough to be an album by themselves lasting a grand total of nearly 27 minutes.

The former starts with eerie wind blowing across the Arctic landscape for three minutes and then the doom metal guitars kick in and charge across to meet the dulcet tones. Their also are Sabbath tones here and Smith’s vocals are traditionally sung showing even more range here then on the whole album combined. He also plays some mean metal leads on his axe, occasionally tearing into the darkness with higher toned notes (to save the day). Thirteen minutes in the chuggin’ riffs are heavenly in their old school flavor.

The latter starts of with beautiful single guitar notes representing a glorious freedom. The song before its ten minutes is over sees dirty doom metal cuts and chops and faster effective solo work by Smith as well as sweet ass drumming from Spears. After a minute of silence death metal hits youin the face and ends the album on a vicious note.

The entire record is lifted by Alex Conley’s play on the bass guitar laying down monster deep lines for his mates to kill over, song after song.

Whatever you call these Columbus, Ohio spawned bitches; they are simply very talented and original. On “Indie” label Chrome Leaf Records or now the band is hoping for a bigger deal with a major and with this amount of skill should not be waiting much longer.

Indie or not, this is an early candidate for album of the year or 2008.

Pick up a copy http://www.myspace.com/deadsea

Band Members:
Adam Smith – Guitar, Vocals
Alex Conley - Bass (ex-Early Empire)
Jeremy Spears - Drums

Track listing:
1. Northwitch
2. Coming Home
3. Killing Faith (Crying Death)
4. Assault
5. Vampyre's Kiss
6. Frozen Rivers
7. The Morning Frost

HRH rating: 8.4/10