DEAD SOUL TRIBE

After the demise of the great Psychedelic Waltz, the return of Buddy Lacky aka Devon Graves with his own band Dead Soul Tribe was great news. Unfortunately, none of the DST albums could bring back the glories of old.

Dead Soul Tribe continues the more accessible and emotive songwriting of Psychotic Waltz's swan song Faded. The song format is concise and verse-chorus oriented, striving for a sweeping emotional impact but lacking the musical depth and enthusiasm to make any kind of lasting effect. The slightly metalized rock never rises above basic Black Sabbath heavy blues riffing, a trick that works fine for Sabbath themselves but that usually makes for a tedious listen if other bands try it.

My main grudge with the album is that the song material is uneven and uninvolved. Some tracks like The Drowning Machine and You are plain weak and predictable, other songs like Once and The Haunted have an idea or two that could work if somebody had kicked this lethargic band into action but things pretty much remain midpaced metal muzak for their entire course. In fact, only the first two tracks manage to grab my attention, the remainder plods along without much of an impression.

At the time of this writing, news got out that Devon has terminated the Dead Soul Tribe project after 5 very similar releases(*). Some of those albums are pretty good in that category, but this debut is better avoided.

(*) The new project is named "The Shadow Theory" with a lineup consisting of Krisstofer Gildenlow (ex-PAIN OF SALVATION), Mike Terrana (ex-RAGE, TARJA, MASTERPLAN, MALMSTEEN, MCALPINE) and guitarist Arne Schuppner.