Clear vision or deception?
Time slows down for no man, that's taken for granted, your life changes as you get older; circles of friends disperse and shrink but record collections seem to continue growing either on your shelves, hard drive or server, throughout your lifetime. How can you have the time for more and more new bands? How can you devote the same amount of time and headspace to a record like you did as a teenager? Well, you probably can't and especially not when they're crap.
Deals Death aren't crap but I shan't be pouring over their artwork and memorising every lyric either. The band's take on heavy music is obviously European with all those aloof synths hinting at a symphonic pretension but, at least, not always ladled in cheese. Melodic guitar solos are in there too (see the drop out in Facing Echoes for some prime hair-in-the-wind shredding or The Seperation[sic]) but singer and mainman Olle Ekman relies on more of a raspy gurgle rather than soaring sub-operatic stylings. Escalation has chugging breakdowns, harmonic leads, megaphone voices and the sound of clanking blades. That's a lot of accessories and that's Point Zero Solution all over: too many bits stuck down with scant regard for where they fit. Something akin to a Christmas tree decorated in the dark.
If this review feels like it's straying into the dreaded realm of the trve and kvlt, I assure you it's not – I won't rant about the EDM noises on Dark Dream Dawn, who cares? I'm just not entirely sure what Deals Death are all about. Do they deal in death or just in a fairly safe amalgam of post-millennial metal styles? There are metalcore riffs here, harsh blackened vocals there and twinkling goth-lite keyboards everywhere, all seeking a direction. All in all, it makes for a competent demonstration record but there's little here to provoke impassioned investigation.