A MURDER OF CROWS

Deadsoul Tribe is a progressive metal orchestra, founded (2000) and lead by Devon Graves, a keyboard player and vocalist from Psychotic Waltz. As a matter of fact, Devon Graves cannot be found from Psychotic Waltz' line-up, but Buddy Lackey is the name marked as a keyboardist and vocalist instead. That's because he changed his name when forming a new band - Deadsoul Tribe. He states furthermore that it's not only the name that's changed but also his music and whole person has gone through a transition and thanks to it, according to Devon, Deadsoul Tribe is now more heavy, their chords and harmonies are darker and more atmospheric and their sound is deeper. Now how about that?

At first, when I heard Deadsoul Tribe, I thought it was a successor to Digital Ruin. As a matter of fact I had some hard times getting familiar with this band - every time i played it, up from the air emerged a will to put on some Digital Ruin... So I cannot help it, I just have to compare them to each other. As well as Digital Ruin, Deadsoul Tribe succeed to create an atmosphere and overall sound that is dark, sinister and anxious - wonderful!

At their expression, Deadsouls strongly rely on stormy drummin' of Adel Moustafa. A rock band is only as good as its drummer, and apart from that, Adel is a great looking guy. And how a band looks is no small thing. [D. Graves] Now how about that? Well yes, he is a good drummer and his intensive energy behind the drumkit is impressive. Yet, with a time his eager, bursty and persistent drumming on top makes you to wish for some changes into his high-energy style - sometimes teasing is better than the thing itself. The good looking thing I leave others to decide.

Another thing they rely on their music is the heavy guitar riffing that is performed by three men: Devon Graves, Roland Kerschbaumer and Volker Wilschko. Constant, strong riffs are as stubbornly at the top of their music as is the drumming too. And there is surprisingly few solos considering all the three guitars used, and the solo parts are actually done with the same riiffin' an drummin' as their music is all the way.

Devon Graves takes care of the vocals and his style is somewhat similar to Matthew Pacheco of Digital Ruin - High, loud and clear - well it's heavy rock after all. Again, the same stubborness is present here as well and I feel like he is uncapable to change his style, to sing a bit differently for a moment, at least for example in slow parts. Yet he doesn't quite reach the dark, deep agony of Matthew Pacheco, nor his variability - if you allow me to continue my comparation.

All in all, Deadsoul tribe is a fantastic and impressive band, perfect for headbanging and air-drumming and the atmosphere they create is great and dark. Anyhow, there's a strange obstinacy in their music all the way from songwriting to playing that makes the music to feel unnecessarily constant and aimless, yet their individual songs quite unmemorable. To continue my Digital Ruin comparison, it's the ability to change, to be flexible and imaginary, it's the small details, sound samples, layered vocals and such things that makes this less interesting. That's what I miss here. Rarely there's a prog album, that sounds good right away, but soon begins to feel less intriguing - it's the lack of progressiveness. 3½ stars.