The Deadists - Time Without Light (MCD)

Review
Metalstorm
7.2/10
26.04.2011

Hailing from Sweden we have The Deadists, whose latest effort sees them mixing various elements of sludge, stoner, and doom with a bit of a rock and roll vibe. They might be from Gothenburg, but they sure don’t sound like the status quo for that region.

Ok, so the name is a bit odd, in a clumsy way… Deadists? Followers of Dead… perhaps they are the vanguard of a cult to the late Mayhem front man. So the name is odd, and the cover art is also a bit odd … but in a good way. The kind that makes you wonder what the anime-chick saw to look so freaked out, and encourages the beholder to check the disk out.

The band cites Black Sabbath, High On Fire, and Entombed amongst their influences, which makes sense. They sort of take the basic approach of the first two… RIFFS with back-end bass/drum groove, done in a similar manner to doom/sludge as Entombed did to death back in the mid-90s.

2010’s Time Without Light sees them lay down some sludgy crushing riffs with this “Sludge And Roll” approach. The rockin’ beat keeps the riffs nice and punishing, and allows the bassist and drummer to get a cool groove going on. The vocals are of the shouted variety that one would expect with this type of music, but sounded a bit odd (there’s that word again) at first and I found something of an acquired taste.

Opener “Woven” takes about a minute before the band really gets going after some false-starts, but it’s good going from there. Time Without Light is five songs covering just shy of 30 minutes of good driving music. I liked it, fit in nicely with the highway ridin’ and the road rage…

However, when knocking back barley sodas at El Rancho de COld it’s not likely to hold my attention quite so much. It’s a good EP, sure, but not quite as good/enjoyable as some of the bands they were influenced by.

All said and done, it’s worth checking out. These guys did a little of their own spin on the Sludge/Doom thing which makes it stand out a little. The Deadists are apparently starting to talk about doing their first full-length, and hopefully they’ll continue to hone their craft and further develop their own style so they can stand shoulder-to-shoulder with their influences.

Author: BitterCOld

Review
Slavetometal
7/10

Göteborgarna i THE DEADISTS hänvisar till influenser som BLACK SABBATH, ENTOMBED, HIGH ON FIRE, NEUROSIS m.fl. i sin biografi och för en gångs skull så är inte bolaget helt ute och cyklar i sina referenser. De låter helt klart som ett slöare ENTOMBED och det de gör hanterar de riktigt väl. På de sex spåren får man en stor dos med tung och släpig musik. Som med alla sådana här akter så är det inget man bara drar på och slölyssnar på – utan på med det i stereon, koppla in hörlurarna, maxa volymen i bott och njut! När jag gör detta så blommar också ”Time Without Light” ut totalt. Helt klart ett klassiskt höst/vinter släpp – mörk musik för mörka tider. På ”Time Without Light” finns något som kan bli något stort i framtiden.

Author: Daniel Eriksson

Review
Mtuk Metal Zine

The Deadists. Another new name to me. With the cover and title of the EP it kind of made me expect some kind of Misfits-type. Still, their MySpace site says Alternative/Hardcore/Metal which whilst it didn’t sound enticing elsewhere I saw them tagged as Stoner/Doom which is even worse because if you’re Stoner, you ain’t Doom. Mutually exclusive. So: Stonercore anyone? So what is in this suprise package?

This is their second EP since 2007 and we get 5 (or 6) tracks in just over half an hour to see where they’ve come to.

‘Woven’ is my introduction and, well, there’s a fair bit of Kyuss worship in the fluidly played downtuned-and-fuzzed-out guitar. It’s a sound that travels straight off Demon Cleaner with that classic quirky riff and discordant choked melody. A bit of a heavier sludge approach is mixed in by the bass and drums which I guess comes from the hardcore influence noted and the vocals are gruff and confident sounding barks but in the cold light of day a bit unvaried and the song fails to catch me really. It hasn’t got the bitter, painful intensity of a fine sludge sound like Crowbar or Eyehategod, or the overflowing emotion of a decent Doom band, or the left-field take on life of a nicely rolling Stoner crew. So ‘Woven’ allows me to wander off unconcerned after a couple of minutes and the similar sound of ‘The Human Stain’ unfortunately has even fewer hooks to catch me on.

‘Infinite Self’ up next drops the pace into a slow chug that sprawls across the song like Scissorfight in a placid mood but without the eccentricity. It does, however, pull me back in, back to attention. It has an atmosphere, a slightly sinister air but in the end when the stoner boogie kicks in it has been the highlight so far but still stretches itself out a little too far at six minutes.

‘Deeper Within’ brings that Kyuss sound to the fore once more and with some whispered vocals is quite effective. It loses a bit when it grows more aggressive but some quirky time changes and a slightly unhinged passage brings to mind the late, much missed Bloodlet albeit a sane and controlled version. Things are looking up, I tell myself.

But the last song ‘Chase The Giving’ somehow loses its grip on the atmosphere despite that gloomy recurring riff and I’m left wandering again I’m afraid. There is a hidden track which the cybervoid tells me might be ‘Blizzard Of Nails’ or might not be but after the obligatory fade out sample of the previous track and the intervening silence it is a solid but unremarkable chug exercise to my ears.

Once again this is one of those EPs which is not bad by any stretch: They guys know what they’re doing and have a path they want to follow and I haven’t heard many similar bands recently at all with their mix of stoner and lighter shades of hardcore. I’m sure some will eat it up and it did cause me to spin Bloodlet’s ‘The Seraphim Fall’ and the brilliant ‘Three Humid Nights In The Cypress Trees’ which is always a good thing. But other than that this it is an EP that is plainly not aimed at me I’m afraid. The songs don’t touch me and on the whole it has left me unmoved. The bottom line is I just don’t get it, sorry guys.

Author: Gizmo

Review
Pest Webzine
8/10

The Deadists come from Sweden and were formed as a band in 2001 but only managed to release 2 EPs until now, and this one I have here is the second. “Time Without Light” is a 5 tracks release totalizing almost 35 minutes of Stoner Doom Metal with strong influences from other music areas like Sludge Metal or Post-Rock. The whole is a very interesting but hard to penetrate slab of groovy music lead by heavy guitar riffs, aggressive vocals, low-tunned bass playing an important role as well and organic, complex drums work. This will fit not only in the Stoner Metal fans collections, others might like it as well.

Author: Adrian

Review
Pavillon 666
7.5/10
07.03.2011

La jeune fille de la pochette vous semble légèrement effrayée? Normal, lorsque l’on lance la lecture de ce deuxième EP des suèdois de The Deadists, adeptes d’un stoner virulent. Le contraire serait étonnant et cette cover façon comics sied parfaitement à cette rondelle bruyante sur laquelle les cinq gaillards de The Deadists ne sont en effet ni tendres ni joyeux. “Time without light” verse du coté obscur du stoner et sonne plus comme une déclaration de guerre que comme une ode au psychédélisme. Feu!

Deuxième méfait donc pour un début de carrière foncièrement prometteur. Acquis à la cause d’un stoner plus gras que gras façon frites à Paulo, flirtant avec la violence d’un sludge poisseux et ronronnant, The Deadists signe ici six morceaux sans concession aucune et s’annonce comme une future valeur sure. A grands coups de guitares hyper saturées et de basse grognante, leur stoner lourd et écrasant se développe autour de riffs furibonds qui renvoient bien souvent l’auditeur dans les cordes, le nez en sang et les yeux pochés. Comme je l’ai déjà évoqué, on dépasse bien souvent les limites du stoner, quand les guitares se font plus acérées et que le chant déjà éraillé se fait plus brutal. “Chase the giving” par exemple se termine dans un tempo soutenu d’inspiration foncièrement hardcore aussi bien dans le fond que dans la forme. De plus, The Deadists se veut beaucoup plus sombre que la moyenne, avec des mélodies insidieuses et franchement noires (“Woven”, “Deeper within”). D’ailleurs, leur songwritting distille les mélodies avec plus de subtilité qu’il y parait, comme on cracherait dans la soupe du beau frère avant de lui servir. D’autres morceaux, tels que “Infinite self”, jouent plus sur la facette groovy – gros travail de la section rythmique, du bel ouvrage – du combo tout en restant d’un haut niveau d’agressivité. L’atmosphère pèse ainsi de tout son poids sur nos frêles épaules comme un plein sac de cailloux et nous écrase d’une violence contenue mais bien réelle et inquiétante. Peu de points faibles sur cette galette équilibrée, si ce n’est le chant quelque peu monotone et la production qui manque parfois de souffle et se montre plus respirante sur le bonus track, “Blizzard of nails”. Cette dernière introduit sans doute le futur son du groupe, plus dynamique et clair mais tout autant rentre dedans.

Une bien belle mise en bouche – ou plutôt un déchaussage de dents – avant un effort plus long, espérons le. Sans réinventer le genre, la noirceur et l’énergie de la petite troupe suédoise fait plaisir à voir et laisse imaginer des prestations live cataclysmiques. Alors si vous aimez en prendre plein la tronche en très peu de temps, foncez sur cette galette qui ne saurait vous décevoir. Pensez tout de même à acheter des mouchoirs en papiers au préalable (pour essuyer le sang qui va s’échapper de votre nez, bande de pervers).

Author: Oceancloud