Deadsoul Tribe – A Lullaby For The Devil

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InsideOut Music
Produced by Devon Graves

It’s just two short years since Devon Graves and Deadsoul Tribe issued The Dead Word comes A Lullaby For The Devil, which sees the band get heavy and mean, steering completely away from the path the previous three albums have paved. It turns out this was entirely the band’s intention, to leave behind the “tribal” style of previous efforts and come up with something entirely new.

Graves vocally explores much more extreme techniques than have been heard on a Deadsoul Tribe, or indeed a Psychotic Waltz (Devon’s previous band) album before. This is immediately evident on chugging, bass-driven opener Psychosphere, which layers several different vocal deliveries over the most pounding rhythms the band have ever produced.

Goodbye City Life is like an incredibly heavy take on the atmospheric music Mortiis made after his departure from Emperor, especially in the way it moves from crushing, marching rhythms which are highlighted by strings and synth-sounds to acoustic parts with beautiful vocals and Graves’ trademark flute playing. Later it becomes a full prog-metal affair with lead guitar in abundance; the albums longest and most epic track.

The heaviness continues with Here Come The Pigs which, as Graves himself rightly points out, is reminiscent of Rob Zombie, with it’s low, ominous spoken-vocal parts (actually, more White Zombie than Rob’s solo work), albeit with more progressive music in places, particularly in the lead guitar.

One of the albums highlights crashes in with Lost In You, a song which wastes no time at all with it’s pummeling riff in the first bar and an impassioned but anthemic chorus, breaking down into a delicate piano-led section before driving through the last minute or so with a couple more choruses. A trio of six-minute ‘mini-epics’ follows. A Stairway To Nowhere’s echoing intro and first verses are reminiscent of softer Depeche Mode, leading through to groove-riffing instrumental breaks between verses and choruses. It doesn’t really get much further than that and could have been half the length.

Graves’ flute returns to lead instrumental The Gossamer Strand which, again, could have been half the length. It opens peacefully with most just the flute and picks up pace with heavy guitars after a couple of minutes. It’s a well constructed instrumental, but is just too long. Any Sign At All, on the other hand isn’t. Perhaps most like past Deadsoul Tribe it a tribal feel to the drums and jagged, heavy riffs either side of more emotional, building verses and arguably Graves’ most passionate vocals of the album.

Fear carries hints of Queen in its harmonies and is otherwise a concise, acoustic-led track that’s about as close to a ballad as the album gets. Not quite as concise as the fast, heavy three-minutes of Further Down, though. Finally the title track closes the album in true progressive style, beginning softly, heavy and anthemic in the chorus and is suitably proggy later on for a mini-epic album closer.

This is easily Deadsoul Tribe’s best work. Every change they’ve made is for the better and hopefully more crushing metal records of this calibre are to follow. Not before a tour though, one hopes.

“ more extreme techniques ”

Tracklist: Psychosphere / Goodbye City Life / Here Come The Pigs / Lost In You / A Stairway To Nowhere / The Gossamer Strand / Any Sign At All / Fear / Further Down / A Lullaby For The Devil

Written by Andy Lye
More: Albums, Progressive, Deadsoul Tribe