Every now and again the music world is introduced to a new genre…and by new genre I mean a group of artists that are loosely grouped around a certain demographic, usually for marketing…in this instance I’d like to remind you about a primarily British movement called “New Grave”. Not that I’m knocking it, let me be clear, but in in recent years, several artists have been labelled within this sense of grouping to form under this new umbrella term, artists such as ASHESTOANGELS, NEVER FOUND and even CREEPER in their early days…and in all fairness it got a bit of coverage, but it seemingly died away…or so we thought. Cue THE DEAD XIII…hailing from Manchester and consisting of vocalist Kurt Blackshard, bassist Paul Ryan, drummer Spike Owen, lead guitarist Ste Mahoney and guitarist / synth player Symon Strange, the horror metal mob plan to dig us all a fresh one on February 9th when they drop their brand new album “Dark Days”…grab your shovels…let’s check it out.
The album opens up with “Bloodlines” and we’re met with some cold, eerie synths and a foreboding sense of musical thanatophilia as it slowly builds towards an intense dose of aggrotech inspired metal…it’s energetic and up beat but retains a darkness, backed by Blackshard’s deep, raw vocals…this would easily please fans of say SADDOLLS and DEATHSTARS without sounding like a cheap knock-off, the quality here is top-drawer and it gets the album off to a strong start. We continue on with the album’s title track and though, while the synths are still there as a prominent feature, layered deeply within the songs structure, this is a slower, heavier offering with more emphasis on the chugging riffs, and in many ways this would satisfy anyone following MOTIONLESS IN WHITE, it’s got that crossover, metalcore vibe to it.
The album has it’s fine points elsewhere too; “Angels” and “Play Hell” keep the momentum going with more of the same up-tempo industrial tinged electronic goth metal…I don’t say this lightly but artists in this genre bracket are a dying breed, especially ones of this quality, the market has shrunken considerably so it’s wonderful to see not only a band totally owning it, but to have come from the UK too, it’s so encouraging! The real star of this album however has to go to “Killers”…with all of the qualities already mentioned but taken up a notch, it’s got some wonderfully infectious melodies and a chorus bordering on anthemic, add to that the slick guitar solo, this tracks on point! A couple of tracks that missed the point however do slightly tarnish the album to a degree…”Last Stand” despite its frenetic black metal inspired intro ends up a little methodical. “Vigil” while undeniably a sweet little piano interlude, is sadly still just a sweet little piano interlude. A break from the vocals is welcome mind you, that’s another thing, it’s all systems go from Blackshard 100% of the time and some clean vocals wouldn’t go amiss...before we get click-baited by “Curtain Call”. First of all, putting another instrumental filler track in the album is one thing but placing it at track 11 on a 12 track album is just annoying…have an elongated intro to proper closing track “From Beyond” by all means but this is a waste of time…it’s literally just filler. Nit-picking aside it’s a strong album overall and does the genre ample justice…whether or not that genre is worth being labelled as new grave is up for debate but for now, consider 13 a lucky number. [8]
The album opens up with “Bloodlines” and we’re met with some cold, eerie synths and a foreboding sense of musical thanatophilia as it slowly builds towards an intense dose of aggrotech inspired metal…it’s energetic and up beat but retains a darkness, backed by Blackshard’s deep, raw vocals…this would easily please fans of say SADDOLLS and DEATHSTARS without sounding like a cheap knock-off, the quality here is top-drawer and it gets the album off to a strong start. We continue on with the album’s title track and though, while the synths are still there as a prominent feature, layered deeply within the songs structure, this is a slower, heavier offering with more emphasis on the chugging riffs, and in many ways this would satisfy anyone following MOTIONLESS IN WHITE, it’s got that crossover, metalcore vibe to it.
The album has it’s fine points elsewhere too; “Angels” and “Play Hell” keep the momentum going with more of the same up-tempo industrial tinged electronic goth metal…I don’t say this lightly but artists in this genre bracket are a dying breed, especially ones of this quality, the market has shrunken considerably so it’s wonderful to see not only a band totally owning it, but to have come from the UK too, it’s so encouraging! The real star of this album however has to go to “Killers”…with all of the qualities already mentioned but taken up a notch, it’s got some wonderfully infectious melodies and a chorus bordering on anthemic, add to that the slick guitar solo, this tracks on point! A couple of tracks that missed the point however do slightly tarnish the album to a degree…”Last Stand” despite its frenetic black metal inspired intro ends up a little methodical. “Vigil” while undeniably a sweet little piano interlude, is sadly still just a sweet little piano interlude. A break from the vocals is welcome mind you, that’s another thing, it’s all systems go from Blackshard 100% of the time and some clean vocals wouldn’t go amiss...before we get click-baited by “Curtain Call”. First of all, putting another instrumental filler track in the album is one thing but placing it at track 11 on a 12 track album is just annoying…have an elongated intro to proper closing track “From Beyond” by all means but this is a waste of time…it’s literally just filler. Nit-picking aside it’s a strong album overall and does the genre ample justice…whether or not that genre is worth being labelled as new grave is up for debate but for now, consider 13 a lucky number. [8]
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