Artist: Dead When I Found Her
Title: All The Way Down
Genre: Electronic
Release Date: 13th November 2015
Label: Artoffact Records
Album Review
Think of all the times death has been a subject matter in music, and if you did that think of the perspective the music has been dealing with it from. As a matter of fact, it is mostly been the one of the surviving dependant: how the deal with the fact and how devastated they are by it. Now think of it the other way around. How would the person who’s about to die feel? How are they perceiving life especially the elderly and the sick ones and their point of view on death and the feelings associated with it. It’s something that has hardly been covered in music and is now taking on in detail on the newest instalment of Michael Holloway’s DEAD WHEN I FOUND HER project, entitled ‘All The Way Down’. The music in its basic form remains as recognizable as ever. After all you can’t deny your roots completely. In other aspects the music’s gotten a push to the extreme as far as emotional expression and moods go as could be expected due to the heavy subject matter.
Though being the opening track, ‘Expiring Time’, somewhat comes across as the closing dance to what was once called a life. As time keeps fading, memories of the dear one who’ve passed away long before become very real. They can almost be touched. ‘The Unclean’ as the first of two instrumental tracks on the album rips any reflective moods to shreds with its sharp punctuated industrial trademarks and is as contradictory to the following ‘Threadbare’ as can be. ‘Threadbare’ offers nothing less than decay cast into a piece of music. You can almost watch the skin drop from the bone as the song progresses slowly build on a moderately paced foundation and a thick network of pads as it becomes more and more apparent that “the soil becomes forever home“. If there was ever any track of DWIFH that would qualify for a single release, it would be ‘Downpour’ for sure. By the band’s standards it is quite a catchy club track whose infamously sad lyrics are nevertheless able to drag you down in a brief moment.
‘Misericordia’, the Latin word for mercy. As mercy can come in various shapes, it depends very much on the individual mind what is seen as mercy. “What have they taken to give you more days”. The very first line out of the song sows the seed of doubt. Is it really okay to prolong life that otherwise would have ended already if it’d put that person in a constant state of pain. Believe me, I don’t want to start a discussion about euthanasia, I really don’t. But the question remains and I guess it can only be answered depending on the individual. Anyways, back on track to the music that keeps a low profile and for the most part retains an acoustic, natural sound. With ‘Blood Lesson’ we step right down to the bottom of the black abyss. I’M honest. I was hesitant to write down something about it at first, because of all the heavy material on ‘All The Way Down’, this is the one track that makes me feel really uncomfortable.
So full on raging desperation and anxiety. It is one last gaze into life before the light dims forever, while on the closing appearance ‘At Rest’ there’s a sense of emerging form deep underwater taking in the fresh air for the first time in a long time, and there is light. At least it is not completely dark anymore. It is a relief, having arrived of the end of the way and leaving the pains of life behind. I find it very difficult to summarize things for the album now. What I can definitely say is that it is nothing for the faint of heart thematically. It is indeed harder to get into than previous albums, but in spite of all that it is a rewarding experience that is worth going through the effort.
Tracklist
01. Expiring Time
02. The Unclean
03. Threadbare
04. Gathering Fear
05. Downpour
06. Misericordia
07. Blood Lesson
08. Seeing Red
09. The Noise Above Us
10. At Rest
Line-up
Michael Arthur Holloway
Website
http://www.dwifh.com / https://www.facebook.com/deadwhenifoundher
Cover Picture
Rating
Music: 9
Sound: 9
Extras: -
Total: 9 / 10
Comments powered by CComment