Deadsy – Commencement

Deadsy. Haven’t heard of ’em yet? You will.

Does that mean they’re good? Not necessarily, but they’re original, and that in itself is enough to garner media attention these days. I can sense these things. You wait and see, in six months everyone will be talking about this band and you can go around bragging to all your friends that you knew about it six months ago because the Flack man has his ear to the street. And if not, fuck it, I don’t get paid to write this shit and you don’t pay to read it.

Deadsy sounds like … (here goes) … “Type O Negative meets The Cure with some major David Bowie influence thrown in.” That’s about the best I can do for you on the surface. I saw them described as a “gothic new-wave doom-metal band” on another website. That’s probably not too far from the mark. The odd thing about this disc is that even though the band has a new, fresh sound, most of this CD was recorded in 1997, and has been being passed between record labels ever since.

Elijah Blue Allman (Greg Allman and Cher’s offspring) sings vocals as P Exeter Blue on the disc. The vocals are a throwback to the heavily echo and ‘verbed vocals of the 80’s, sounding more like Bauhaus or the Cure more than anything of recent times. The most recent thing I could think of to compare it to would be Orgy. The guitar/bass on the album is heavily overdriven — I get roughly the same effect by plugging my Peavey Rage directly into my soundcard and sending the levels through the roof. Percussion is snappy when required, but heavy and lumbering when the songs call for that as well. Mixed in with that are keyboards — lots and lots of keyboards, in fact. Nothing modern sounding, mind you, just lots of old 80’s sounding over-the-top synthwork. It’s as odd to listen to as it is to describe, but somehow it works.

The songs are as complex and layered lyrically as they are sonically. The lyrics are thick and poetic, with tinges of Bowie thrown in. Other lyrics reminded me of Tool in places. There aren’t many bubble gum sing-a-long choruses here, but it all sounds poppy. This band reminds me a lot of Tool, not in sound but in design. There are just enough pop songs to get people pulled into the Deadsy circle, but if you spend the time tooling around their website or in the booklet, I think you’ll find a lot more to them.

Time will tell if the masses will attach themselves to Deadsy’s dark, moody, retro sound. Whatever you say about the band, one thing’s for sure — it’s a breath of fresh air compared to most of the other crap coming out right now. If you miss dudes wearing black turtlenecks and eye shadow or are just looking to hear something new and different, check Deadsy out. Once MTV gets a hold of them, you won’t be able to avoid doing so.

I’m sure the band will gain some notoriety with their fuzzed out cover of Rush’s “Tom Sawyer”, but hopefully that won’t end up being just a one hit wonder for the band.

Tracks:
01. The Key To Gramercy Park
02. Winners
03. Brand New Love
04. Mansion World
05. Lake Waramaug
06. The Elements
07. Flowing Glower
08. Furture Years
09. She Likes Big Words
10. Cruella
11. Seagulls (The Macroprosopus)
12. Le Cirque En Rose (Obsolescence)
13. Tom Sawyer
14. Commencement

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