Dead Season are back with their follow-up to Everything’s Lost. Life Death marks the band’s third full length album and it’s full of everything we can expect from these metal heads from Maine: intensity, brutality, and full-fledged heart-pounding metal. These characteristics are fully embraced on the opening song “Everything.” Rock metal riffs cut like glass through double bass pedals and emotion-filled vocals. Lead singer Ian Truman deals with the pain of letting go of the one he loves. His lyrics are tormented by the fact that he knows his relationship is falling apart as he screams “Everything that was good is gone.” His singing becomes more ferocious as it mirrors the pain of the lyrics.

The vigor flows right into the next song “Depression.” There’s no mystery to what this song is about, but it displays anger rather than depression and despair. One would expect a song like this to be full of raw emotion and stripped down, but instead, it’s overflowing with enmity and hatred and it’s actually impossible to connect with the lyrics. The lyrics are on a collision course with the music and don’t seem to give a combined feeling that fits the mession.

Life Death calms down for a moment with two songs, “Sleep When I Die” and “Fall Like Rain,” which express the pain and suffering of a troubled musician. Dead Season can’t let things get too quiet so they bounce back into a fury with “For the Radio,” a song laced with curses and foul language. The song is obviously aimed at the censorship of modern radio and reminds me of Korn’s “Y’all Want a Single.” Both songs express the anger and resentment artists feel towards record labels to keep their music “clean-cut” and “user-friendly.” This song is guaranteed to start a brawl at live shows.

Towards the end of the album Dead Season become more refined in their music. They start to sound like a band who has fine tuned their skills as musicians. The music is more cohesive on the tracks “One More Day,” “Coming to Get Me,” and the instrumental “Storm of Regret.” The beginning of Life Death sounds like a band with a lot of passion but not a lot of focus. The latter half is what I expect from a more mainstream band, and I mean that as a compliment. If Dead Season can take that precision and that passion that I hear on those last few songs, they could easily become a well-known and well-respected metal band. The talent is there and this is a band that is still learning and honing their skills. Life Death is a step in the right direction but they still have some leaps and bounds to go before I can give them five stars.

Must listen to tracks: “Everything,” “One More Day,” and “Coming to Get Me”

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Kristen You can read more about Kristen at her new website http://beerenlightenment.wordpress.com/

Music Videos