Dead Poetic
Four Wall Blackmail
Solid State
Dead Poetic’s debut record, Four Wall Blackmail, begins with a slow, crawl with intermittent death metal-like screams.
The album seems to bridge that long-forgotten gap between heavy metal and emo by unleashing a screaming beast onto a perfectly fine rock song. At first, it seems weird, maybe trite, but at closer inspection, it actually works.
As Brandon Rike sings on “The Corporate Enthusiasts,” for instance, a second voice, whom I presume is Rike because the liner notes mentions no other vocalist, screams a refrain. Guitarist Zach Miles goes onto play a direct, unpretentious rock song, while brothers Chad Shellabarger (bassist) and Josh Shellabarger (drummer) pull it together with solid playing. Expect for the occasional scream, Four Wall Blackmail is an album that hits you without the usual studio manipulations of so many modern rock records.
Dead Poetic: http://www.deadpoetic.com
