DEAD SOUL ALLIANCE – Spiraling To Lunacy

RELEASE YEAR: 2023

BAND URL: https://dsadeath.bandcamp.com/

It’s a good feeling to be able to rest from a genre, in this case melodeath, and take in some good old classic death metal in the vein of the first two Paradise Lost albums, early Hypocrisy, Immolation and Death, with a few surprising twists courtesy of the Canadian duo’s second (after “Behind The Scenes”²⁰²¹) full length in a whopping 13 years, “Spiraling To Lunacy”. What they don’t offer in originality, William “Wolven Deadsoul” Finn (bass, guitars, vocals) and E. H. (drums) make up for in intensity and execution as on the pure death metal perfection that is the title track which actually took me back somewhere between “Gothic” and “Here In After”, both of which albums should be well known to any genre fan.

The problem with perfection, as you well know, is that it cannot be improved upon or matched, so the rest of the material, try as it may, does not reach the highs and splendor of the title track. I mean, I don’t want to be a jerk but it almost sounds like a fluke because only one track, from the remaining 7 proper, the excellent “New Normal Nihilist” comes close, with the rest nothing above 4.5 mark quality. The excellent but disappointingly short (interlude?), (track intro?), (ballad?) “Silencing The Masses” recalling Hypocrisy’s “The Fourth Dimension” melodic stylings, show that Dead Soul Alliance on “Spiraling To Lunacy” are much like the current Republican Party in the United States – not so much interested in substance but just abject power. That may go very well with the pointless intro “Within The Darkness” which, to boot, the first song proper, “The Demons That Be” pretty much reprises in conclusion showing the pointlessness of a two track split, but it does little to convince me I am dealing with something for the ages.

There’s potential here, clearly (thus the score), and here credit for the lyrics about the welcome release from that pathetic excuse for life that comes with death (Freedom Of Death) but y’all need some serious focus and balance of the hooks and the sheer undeniable brutality that oozes from the speakers too often for no particular reason, which is all too often the case with the so called Scandinavian death metal albums. As for the few precious hooks provided: we like it, we love it, we want more of it! So to end on a positive note: you deserve a Grammy for that title track!