Release Date: January 28th 2022. Record Label: Idle Deaf Records. Format: DD
Year Of Dread - Tracklisting
1.Fix Me, Heal Me 07:39
2.Burn Pile 06:10
3.Evil Is Contagious 06:00
4.Misery 06:06
5.Buried And Blind 07:08
Members
Jason Micah - Vocals
Tom Tier - Drums
Scott Coffey - Bass
Mark Lundberg - Guitar
Review
Year Of Dread is the debut release from Blackened Sludge/Black Metallers Idle Death and with a band operating in such despair and misery you can expect to hear a bleak musical vision that has its roots in Doom Metal and Sludge Metal. The instrumental work moves from modern day Heavy Metal to the more extreme style of music with surprisingly clean vocals on the excellent opening song Fix Me, Heal Me. The lyrics are very hard-edged and the grooves have an alternative feel to the despite the bleakness of the music.
With the majority of the songs running past the six minute mark, Idle Death are quite progressive without actually being labelled as such. With this being a demo, the record is very rough around the edges but one that still possesses excellent production values.
The next two songs Burn Pile and Evil Is Contagious is where Idle Death impresses the most as the Blackened part of their musical vision truly comes into play with superb grooves that have GRIT, STEEL and EXTRA BITE. The cold sounding Psychedelic elements are a cool touch but Idle Death never moves far away from their dark musical background.
There is a lot to admire on this debut demo release with one being the journey the band takes you upon. There’s nothing subtle about this release. It’s z bleak onslaught of heavy pounding riffs that have a high amount of fast beats and gigantic breakdowns.
Overall, Year Of Dread is a welcome distraction from the usual Doom/Sludge Metal releases currently out there and showcases a band to definitely keep an eye on for future releases.
Excellent and Highly Recommended.
Words by Steve Howe
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