DEADEND IN VENICE - See You On The Ground CD Review

ARTIST: Deadend in Venice
TITLE: See You on the Ground
YEAR: 2011
LABEL: RockN’Growl
REVIEWED BY: John Roach

I understand that there are tons of bands that exist on this ball of dirt we call home and it can be hard to stand out amongst the crowd. What doesn't make it any easier on the bands that should get the spotlight is that bands like Deadend in Venice from Germany who come out with generic material which can be found on their first full length album "See You on the Ground". I was pulled in with the artwork and the name of both the band and the album but as I found out the whole "don’t judge a book by its cover" still stands here. Regardless I got through the entire album a few times now so let us talk about it, shall we?

While out for a metal stroll I started the Deadend in Venice album and flicked the hold switch on and see where it took me. As the tracks went by I kept waiting and hoping for something to catch me, something to stand out and show me what this melodic death metal five piece brings to the table. As I stated above, every aspect of this band is very generic. Not to say the musicianship isn't good but what they do sounds like an afterthought of a majority of other bigger bands.

There are two vocalists in this band doing the whole beauty and beast contrast thing with the clean female vocals alongside guttural male vocals and to me vocals are a huge thing when getting into a band. The male vocals sound very weak and void of real power as if it's all coming from the top of his throat and it’s very annoying. The same kind of weakness I get from the female vocals as well which seem to always be a tad out of time due to pronunciation or accent. Don't get me started on the lyrics. Hailing from Germany I can understand that English isn't their first language but things like "He will eat my brain! He will eat my goddamned brain!" (Monkey in my Closet) and "Life's just a show in split screen mode" (Dirty Little Princess) take me right out of the music and leave me in disbelief. I believe that this album would have been more kick ass in German. There's nothing, absolutely nothing I can say about the instrumentation on the album other than it works for what they're doing. It doesn’t leave any residual marks when trying to remember a riff or melodic line.

The overall thought I had from start to finish was that I'd rather be listening to the band System Divide, who pull off the beauty and beast thing with more variety, power, and uniqueness. Deadend in Venice comes off as trying to be super epic and bigger than they are. Trying to be all badass talking about death and apocalyptic worlds with no place to hide from war but it all falls flat when everything about this band seams a little off in one way or another. I know that there is an audience for this kind of rock-ish/melodic death-ish/gothic…ish metal, but I am not going to be a part of that fan base. Bottom line is there is nothing here to sink my teeth into. I tried to like this band, I really did, but this music is a dead end with nothing to do with Venice. Skip the album and visit the city.

P.S. If for some reason you're going to check out this band anyway, listen to the 5th track “War”. It’s probably the best song on the album.

TRACKLISTING:

01. Hate Sweet Hate
02. Personal Decay
03. Brain Execution
04. Long Way Home
05. War
06. Last Chances
07. The Monkey in my Closet
08. Dirty Little Princess
09. Tomorrow Never Comes