(Here’s Wil Cifer‘s enthusiastic review of the debut album by Oakland-based Deadform, which is set for release by the Tankcrimes label on October 25th.)
Entrenched in Hell is the first full-length from this Oakland-based trio. If you are a fan of crust punk, this should be considered the upper crust of the genre.
Dino Sommese from Dystopia is playing drums and sharing vocal duties with Brian Clouse from Stormcrow. Clouse is playing bass in this project, with Judd Hawk (ex-Laudanum) laying down the guitars.
Hawk cranks out a vicious guitar tone, and phrases his riffs in a manner that gives you everything one might want from the grim world-ending metal. The production is raw, but feels like you are in their practice space having your eardrums ruptured. It certainly highlights the things I love about this sub-genre as it carries a stormy fury but grooves into the dark apocalyptic mood of the songs. The disdain projected into these songs makes for the perfect soundtrack to the world around us, with lyrics shattering the false hopes we try to fool ourselves with.
The crunch snarling from their blown-out amps is burly enough to belong to a sludge band but played with more of a punk attitude. There is a slight touch of thrash in the hook to the riffs. Though you should think more Voivod than Slayer in this regard. “As Above So Below” finds the guitars creating a great deal of sonic chaos as the riffs lurch toward you. The rasp of the vocals is articulated enough to make out they are howling about worshipping rotted flesh. I mentioned the punk attitude.
If you prefer the punk side of the crust equation be warned this is not the fun-loving bashing of three chords, but crafted with arrangements carrying dynamic depth that owes more to Celtic Frost than Black Flag. The doom-minded “The Exit” paints a bleak picture with the sounds they are bringing to life. It converges into a powerful chug that you can not resist headbanging to.
Things become increasingly downtrodden on “Peacekeeper” with the vocals vomiting out a more wretched rasp. The guitarist allows the chords to ring out to create some dynamic space for mood, as the song is allowed to breathe more than the first three. A nasty bass tone drags you deeper into the filthy world of “Misery” which holds more tension, with a punk punch to the chorus.
This album shows you do not need a big-name producer or million-dollar studio to capture a great-sounding album that hits you with the weight of their live sounds while retaining the larger-than-life studio atmosphere. The guitar tones are sick as hell, but not overproduced by any stretch. They step on the gas a little for the last song, but the deliberate pace retains the power they have been pumping at you for the entire album.
This is well-written and executed, the mood is dismal and real. If you are a Dystopia fan this is more metallic in its intentions but comes from a similar place, so you will not be disappointed. This is a pretty flawless piece of crust metal that is subversive enough to win over punk and metalheads in equal measure.
https://tankcrimes.bandcamp.com/album/entrenched-in-hell
https://tankcrimes.merchtable.com/
https://www.instagram.com/_deadform_