Deadwood - Sheolic

Recorded in between 2009 and 2011, Deadwood returns with their final part of the trilogy that started back in 2005 with 8 19 in 2005, continued with Ramblack in 2008, and is finally finished off with this work that takes inspiration from dark ambient, black industrial, and power electronics. Focusing on the grim theme of mankind's spiraling and impending doom, and the acceptance that surrounds it by the population of Earth, this album screeches of an ill omen and spiteful demise.

A.V.E. takes us into this Hellish pit to start with, the noise of something banging amongst walls, the sound of a chain rattling and wind blowing throughout your ears allows a darkly romantic hymn to serenade you. The atmospheric noise builds, and the vocals presented are deep but not loud; it's as if someone invades your head and just softly beckons you to do the worst deeds imaginable.

Pulverization Pulse constructs on the heavy ambience with static noise, and a very faint line that backs it all. The vocals go with more of a distorted like feel to them, and the noise that breaks out in the song leads the drone like tone to become just that much more enriching.

As echoing and creepy samples lead into Compound 4080, a more low pitched drone note comes in, that still has some noise surrounding it. The vocals take queues from the previous song, and the overall mood of this track sort of stays in formation with the previous. I wouldn't say it was boring, but it certainly didn't have the flare and style of the first two tracks.

Dead Waste had the whole noise over ambience flirtation going on once more, and the vocals were even more distorted and low pitched than before. It was like a great evil spirit trying to escape from a record; it sounded devilishly delicious. Even then, though, I wouldn't really say that this track pushed the album any further than it had already gone.

Getting a bit more interesting and implementing power electronics, Traditorem for the most part stuck with a drone like note. However, below that rumbled a powerful and steady rhythm that brought a bright light to the overall track. The vocals were more angry this time around, almost like someone trying to summon forth an army. The final few minutes of the song stuck with dark ambience, with gentle whispers carrying us along.

Even more so than before, Dissolution Paradigm carried along a very, very heavy bout of static ambience; almost subliminal like whispers carry us along. The creepy part of this song came in the form of multiple samples playing along with one another, while the lyrical content is spoken out below it all; it's like a montage of filth brought from a darkly grave.

The final song was a bit disappointing, sounding fairly flat in comparison to a few others; it's nice, and sounds well and all, but it doesn't really hold up throughout it's duration due to a lack of innovative ideas. A combination of more dark ambient work and samples was just overall plain.

But, even with that said, it was still a good song. And, the album as a whole was pretty damned great. Wherever this artist decided to crack out a new tool to push his songs forward, he succeeded very well in a makeshift sort of way. The areas where this album dipped would be when he tried the same tactics; it goes very well without saying that using the same tricks more than once can easily be caught on. However, this is the end for this trilogy, and maybe there won't be another Deadwood album out for quite some time. And though I am new to this artist, I'm excited to possibly extend my interest to his previous works. But, for now, I'm glad got the opportunity to listen to this album in its entirety. Aug 25 2014