Dark Music Review – Deinonychus
Review Written By Casey Douglass
Stateslaver Zero returns with his first full-length collection of cinematic, breakbeat-infused industrial music: Deinonychus!The album contains six diverse pieces that blend multi-layered breaks with dreary soundscapes.This should be a fun thrill ride! Deinonychus ends with an enhanced version of Stateslaver Zero’s signature piece I’m Going Home.
Reviewing Deinonychus
is a bit of a departure for me from my usual dark ambient and heavy
metal reviews, as it probably contains more beats per minute than
anything I have listened to recently, but with Deinonychus,
that is very much the point. At its heart, Deinonychus is an
album that revolves around the beat, be it breakbeats, drum and bass
or its more electronic sounds.
Things open with the
smooth Future Warlord, an easy going track that eases the listener
into the album with a relatively relaxed rhythm that is scattered
with harsher sounds around it. Mental Wolves follows, a composition that
begins with gentle high notes before frenetic, almost bubble popping
notes emerge, soon to be joined by a fast paced beat. Hydross is
next, a more relaxed track in which space opens up and the beat, along with
its bassier slower cousin, can frolic in a more expansive way.
Deinonychus is
up next, a mid-tempo track (when compared with those that came before
it), spiraling electronic sounds lift and fall above a pleasing
beat, the final third of the track seeing the beat ramp up and become
more aggressive. Temple Enforcer is up next, a track that opens with
ominous whispered voices and a creaking bass that meets the beat with
a sense of dark embrace. Around the midpoint sacral chant/vocals
merge with a gong-like sound and moments of quietude that then
launch back into the previous beat. I’d say that Temple Enforcer
was probably my favourite track, it just seemed darker and had more
elements that appealed to me personally.
The final track: I’m
Going Home, is another track that seems somewhere in the middle of the
scale when it comes to tempo. It also features what sounds like
violin notes turning into vocals, or vocals that sound like some
kind of string instrument. It's quite catchy and the dark swells of deeper
sound that blares around them just makes a great rhythm. The track
changes at intervals, the last third in particular taking on a more
plucky, fluty tone for some moments, that sets up a nice contrast to the
darker sounds that came before them.
So there we have it,
six tracks that all feature plenty of drumbeats of various speeds, a
nice range of other notes and sounds, and a variety of tones, from
the light and airy ending of I’m Going Home to the darker and more
sinister Temple Enforcer. I would say that these last two tracks are
my favourites but the others were certainly likeable in their own way
too.
If you are a fan of
breakbeat-infused industrial music, I think you will enjoy
Deinonychus. As far as myself and my limited exposure to this
genre of music, I found a lot to like and little to criticise,
although I will say that I am not sure if it is really a genre for
me, besides some of the elements that I also came across that are also in my
beloved dark ambient. If I was forced to give it a rating, I would
say it would be a 3.5/5, based more on the
fact that only two tracks really grabbed me in a noteworthy way, but
as I said above, its a nice listening experience and one that I urge
you to check out if you think it is in line with your own music
tastes.
Check out Deinonychus
on bandcamp at this link.
I was given a free
copy of this album to review.
Album Title:
Deinonychus
Artists: Stateslaver
Zero
Label : Nakrikal
Records
Released: October 1,
2015
