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Album Review
by SashaS
30-6-2003
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| Dead Meadow: aplenty of all life-forms |
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Dead Meadow: 'Shivering King and Others'
(Matador)
Dead Meadow’s not a place for splifferati only
A long forgotten literary guru had damned the television for making the manufacture of banality a major industry. That methodology has spread to music industry over the past decade like a mantra and what we have is – cliché galore and stereotype bazaars. Imagine there being an Olympiad for original pop-song – Rap, R&B and Nu-Metal are disqualified for being utterly recycled – and yet, no Gold medal could be awarded!
Then, the question is what a band/artist does with the limited source material and in Britain we’ve been getting re-packaging of all kinds, be it Pop Televising or homegrown acts that are so bogged in nostalgia can’t see creativity for a song. The Thrills come to mind that is opposed by the inventive retro of The White Stripes, the garage-rock-by-numbers of Yeah Yeah Yeahs is shattered by Radiohead’s unsettling noise, the daftness of glam-rebranding by The Darkness is so dumbfounding to be blown off by safe-and-bland Evanescence…
There are plenty of goodniks all over the world, you simply need to find ‘em. Thus, to your attention and for your delectation, we’d like to (re)introduce Dead Meadow and their third album, ‘Shivering King And Others’. The Washington DC power trio are dropping an unusual and original heavy rock potion that loosely can be termed – ‘stoner’. Alas, ‘psychedelia’ has that hippy connotation and this has nothing to do with the lovey-dovey values.)
The members met around the punk scene of DC but found shared love in bands such as Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix and Black Sabbath. Formed in 1998, their first two albums came out on Fugazi bassist Joe Lally’s Tolotta Records (self-titled debut in 2000 and ‘Howls From The Hills’, 2001) as well as a concert document ‘Got Live If You Want It’ last year. During their career, singer/guitarist Jason Simon and bassist Steve Kille have had to replace a drummer; the current sticksman is Stephen McCarty.
With a new contract the band has had more budget to spread its creativity that’s freed additional experimentation. There are heavy moments, bluesy tracks, riffage from the atrium of hell, vocals from the edge of spiritual well, some magic washes over you in the shape of ‘Everything’s Going On’. Its repeated phrases go on to set the control for the heart of auto-imagery before demonically weaving guitarwork takes you hallucinatory vistas on ‘The Whirlings’; ‘Good Moanin’’ is sonically monstrous and lyrically minimal paranoia that recalls the best of Zepp.
‘The Shivering King’ nears the end with a pastel-tinted-cum-darkly majestic ‘Heaven’ before its journey completes with ‘Raise The Sails’, a cut of Ulyssian proportions.
Dead Meadow’s album is full of music to watch the world go by – bust; perfect for nocturnal observers and all strangers in a strange land.
8/10
SashaS
30-6-2003
Dead Meadow’s album ‘Shivering King And Others’ is released 16 June 2003 by Matador
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