Death Valley Piledriver – Branded

artist website

Self-published
Produced by Evil Aidy

Peterborough’s Death Valley Piledriver have just finished a tour supporting rap-metal pioneers Stuck Mojo around the UK alongside their hometown compatriots Vendetta, and available for the first time on CD on this tour was this debut demo EP.

DVP are all about the purest of aggressive metal, dripping with Southern groove, in both their live shows and their recorded output. Massively influenced by the likes of Pantera, Black Label Society, Sepultura and Slayer they put the kind of unfiltered energy into their performances that all those bands did when they were younger and eager.

Completion opens, kicking off with an evil Slayer-style intro then a fast modern-metal riff, similar to something Lamb of God might produce. Rikki’s vicious vocals compliment perfectly the high-speed aggression, and to cap it all off some blistering solos add another level of intensity later on.

This is a similar story across all five tracks here. The ghost of Dimebag and Pantera makes its present felt on The Blood, with a huge groove in the chorus and a late-’80s Zakk Wylde solo, and then on Proof, mixed with a modern metal sound in the verses. A classic metal sound colours the main riffing to End of Days, and another blissfully crisp solo highlights the tale end.

Their own anthem DVP closes, as it does their live set, and it is perfectly suited for the task. A huge fists-in-the-air chorus of “We are Death Valley Piledriver” and riffs which exhibit a little Iced Earth in with the Pantera influences occupy half the song, before a wonderfully melodic mid-section with superb lead playing gives way to a frantic bridge and another rendition of choruses.

Branded is comfortably one of the best metal demos of the year. Hopefully they’ll be able to start selling copies online soon for those who can’t make it to a show, but if they appear in a support slot, don’t waste the chance to catch their set and pick up a copy of this disc.

“ high-speed aggression ”

Tracklist: Completion / The Blood / Proof / End of Days / DVP

Written by Andy Lye
More: EPs, Heavy Metal (Extreme Vocals), Southern, Unsigned, Death Valley Piledriver