Saturday, May 3, 2014
Exclusive Full Stream: King Dead
Is it fair to say instrumental acts aren't afforded the distraction of punchy vocals or wry lyrics, thus cornering them into a more focused approach and more proficient exploration of sound? Maybe not. But good Goddamn if Pennsylvania's King Dead don't leave you toothless and drained with little more than a whistle. On their self-titled debut EP, the unconventionally-structured trio hammers hot steel and pins bleak, droning tapestries to passing clouds. These five tracks pause, pull back, and deliver a haunt that's increasingly dynamic and impossible to dismiss.
Post-metal sustain is patient and calculated on opener Ghosts Along the Riverbank, while beauty's backside is progressively marred on the ominous, plucky chortles of As One Plows and Breaks Up the Earth, So Our Bones Have Been Scattered at the Mouth of the Grave. Tin walls echo, breaking long-drawn strides to pierce bleak skies and each track offers its own scorched path toward ascension. Utilizing hovering notes (Length of Rope), jitterred intermissions dancing between drum bullets (Drowning in Dust), and an ultimate swell of skull-splitting distortion and collapse (God Makes a Lot of Fucking Promises), this thirty-minute EP is as complete and meaty as any 2014 release.
All colorful descriptors aside, this effort is staggering in its ability to craft a desolate and dreary landscape using drums and bass. King Dead brew dark swirls of hollow escape, taking listeners to a place unique in its marriage of despair and beauty. But nothing written here can quite explain the bounce, the haunt, the movements... Check out the full EP streaming below and gape for yourself.
This music creates an image of a post-apocalyptic town where a half-undead sheriff rules without mercy. Until one day, the ruthless undead sheriff confronts an alien outsider in the center of town at a duel where the crowd is watching anxiously while the dusty wind creates whirly sound. Who would win? We don't know. We love the sludgy anticipation though.
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